TY - JOUR
T1 - Agent-dependent modulation of corticospinal excitability during painful transcutaneous electrical stimulation
AU - Fossataro, C.
AU - Burin, D.
AU - Ronga, I.
AU - Galigani, M.
AU - Rossi Sebastiano, A.
AU - Pia, L.
AU - Garbarini, F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by MIUR-SIR [grant number RBSI146V1D , 2014] to F.G. and by San Paolo Foundation [grant number CSTO165140 , 2016] to F.G.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by MIUR-SIR [grant number RBSI146V1D, 2014] to F.G. and by San Paolo Foundation [grant number CSTO165140, 2016] to F.G.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors
PY - 2020/8/15
Y1 - 2020/8/15
N2 - Pain has an inhibitory effect on the corticospinal excitability that has been interpreted as an evolutionary mechanism, directed to down-regulate cortical activity in order to facilitate rapid protective spinal reflexes. Here, we focused on the link between defensive mechanisms and motor system and we asked whether voluntary actions can modulate the corticospinal excitability during painful stimulations. To this aim, we manipulated the volition-related aspects of our paradigm by comparing conditions in which either the participant (self-generated action) or the experimenter (other-generated action) pressed the button to deliver painful high-intensity transcutaneous electric shocks to the right digit V. MEPs to TMS were recorded from the FDI and APB muscles of the stimulated hand. A compelling agent-dependent modulation of the corticospinal excitability was found, showing, in self-generated compared to other-generated actions, a significantly lower inhibitory effect, as measured by greater MEP amplitude. This finding suggests a top-down modulation of volitional actions on defensive mechanisms, promoting the view that predictive information from the motor system attenuates the responses to the foreseeable adverse events generated by one's own actions as compared to unpredictable events generated by someone else's actions.
AB - Pain has an inhibitory effect on the corticospinal excitability that has been interpreted as an evolutionary mechanism, directed to down-regulate cortical activity in order to facilitate rapid protective spinal reflexes. Here, we focused on the link between defensive mechanisms and motor system and we asked whether voluntary actions can modulate the corticospinal excitability during painful stimulations. To this aim, we manipulated the volition-related aspects of our paradigm by comparing conditions in which either the participant (self-generated action) or the experimenter (other-generated action) pressed the button to deliver painful high-intensity transcutaneous electric shocks to the right digit V. MEPs to TMS were recorded from the FDI and APB muscles of the stimulated hand. A compelling agent-dependent modulation of the corticospinal excitability was found, showing, in self-generated compared to other-generated actions, a significantly lower inhibitory effect, as measured by greater MEP amplitude. This finding suggests a top-down modulation of volitional actions on defensive mechanisms, promoting the view that predictive information from the motor system attenuates the responses to the foreseeable adverse events generated by one's own actions as compared to unpredictable events generated by someone else's actions.
KW - Corticospinal excitability
KW - Defensive motor responses
KW - Motor control
KW - Pain perception
KW - Sense of agency
KW - Sensorimotor predictions
KW - Sensory attenuation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116897
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116897
M3 - Article
C2 - 32417451
AN - SCOPUS:85085301759
VL - 217
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
SN - 1053-8119
M1 - 116897
ER -