Collaboration of Cerebello-Rubral and Cerebello-Striatal Loops in a Motor Preparation Task

Chama Belkhiria (1) , Eya Mssedi (1) , Christophe N Habas (2, 3) , Tarak Driss (1) , Giovanni de Marco (1)

1 CeRSM - Centre de Recherche sur le Sport et le Mouvement
2 CHNO - Centre Hospitalier National d'Ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts
3 UPMC - Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6

In this study, we used fMRI to identify brain regions associated with concentration (sustained attention) during a motor preparation task. In comparison with a non-concentration task, increased activities were observed (P < 0.05, FWEcorrected P values) in cerebellar lobules VI and VII, motor cortex, pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), thalamus, red nucleus (RN), and caudate nucleus (CN). Moreover, analysis of effective connectivity inter-areal (psychophysiological interactions) showed that during preparation, concentration-related brain activity increase was dependent on Cerebellothalamo-pre-SMA-RN and Pre-SMA-CN-thalamo-M1 loops. We postulate that, while pre-SMA common to both loops is specifically involved in the movement preparation and readiness for voluntary movement through the striatum, the cerebellar lobule VI in conjunction with RN, likely through a cerebellar-rubro-olivary-cerebellar loop, might be implicated in concentration-related optimization of upcoming motor performances.

Mots clés: Pre-SMA; Caudate nucleus; Motor preparation; Cerebellum; Red nucleus

Domaines: Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]

Chama Belkhiria, Eya Mssedi, Christophe N Habas, Tarak Driss, Giovanni de Marco. Collaboration of Cerebello-Rubral and Cerebello-Striatal Loops in a Motor Preparation Task. The Cerebellum, 2019, 18 (2), pp.203-211. ⟨10.1007/s12311-018-0980-z⟩. ⟨hal-02310776⟩