Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Bursts and variability of beta oscillations mediate the effect of anxiety on motor exploration and motor learning

Sebastian Sporn, Thomas Hein, Maria Herrojo Ruiz
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/442772
Sebastian Sporn
University of Birmingham;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Thomas Hein
Goldsmiths University of London;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Maria Herrojo Ruiz
Goldsmiths University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: m.herrojo-ruiz@gold.ac.uk
  • Abstract
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Anxiety results in sub-optimal motor performance and learning through mechanisms still unknown. Here we addressed whether state anxiety impairs motor learning through changes in behavioral and neural variability. Participants completed a reward-based motor sequence learning paradigm, with separate phases for exploration (baseline) and learning. Anxiety was manipulated either during baseline or learning. We show that anxiety at baseline reduces motor variability, undermining subsequent reward-based learning. By contrast, unconstrained baseline exploration led to successful motor learning, even under the effect of anxiety. The behavioral changes were driven by changes in the variability of sensorimotor beta oscillations (13-30Hz, SBO). Moreover, bursts of SBO, a marker of physiological beta, lasted longer under the effect of anxiety, resembling recent findings of pathophysiological beta in movement disorders. Our findings suggest that changes in variability and burst duration in SBO represent a neural mechanism through which anxiety constrains movement variability, with detrimental consequences for motor learning.

Footnotes

  • Legend in Figure 5 has been corrected. Mathematical notation has been used for the score equation.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 18, 2018.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Bursts and variability of beta oscillations mediate the effect of anxiety on motor exploration and motor learning
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
Share
Bursts and variability of beta oscillations mediate the effect of anxiety on motor exploration and motor learning
Sebastian Sporn, Thomas Hein, Maria Herrojo Ruiz
bioRxiv 442772; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/442772
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Bursts and variability of beta oscillations mediate the effect of anxiety on motor exploration and motor learning
Sebastian Sporn, Thomas Hein, Maria Herrojo Ruiz
bioRxiv 442772; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/442772

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (1000)
  • Biochemistry (1499)
  • Bioengineering (952)
  • Bioinformatics (6840)
  • Biophysics (2435)
  • Cancer Biology (1801)
  • Cell Biology (2538)
  • Clinical Trials (106)
  • Developmental Biology (1703)
  • Ecology (2585)
  • Epidemiology (1498)
  • Evolutionary Biology (5040)
  • Genetics (3628)
  • Genomics (4640)
  • Immunology (1180)
  • Microbiology (4260)
  • Molecular Biology (1629)
  • Neuroscience (10838)
  • Paleontology (83)
  • Pathology (242)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (410)
  • Physiology (559)
  • Plant Biology (1461)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (412)
  • Synthetic Biology (545)
  • Systems Biology (1882)
  • Zoology (261)