Abstract
Rhythmic bimanual movements are highly constrained in the temporal domain, with the gestures of the two hands tightly synchronized. Previous studies have implicated a subcortical locus for temporal coupling based on the observation that these constraints persist in callosotomy patients. We now report that such coupling is restricted to movements entailing a discrete event (such as a movement onset). Three callosotomy patients exhibited a striking lack of temporal coupling during continuous movements, with the two hands oscillating at non-identical frequencies. We propose a subcortical locus of temporal coupling for movements involving discrete events. In contrast, synchronization between the hands during continuous movements depends on interhemispheric transmission across the corpus callosum.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NIH grants P50 NS17778 and R01 NS30256. The authors are grateful to Noam Sobel, Bekki Spencer and Howard Zelaznik for their comments on this manuscript and to Paul Corballis for his assistance with the data collection.
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Kennerley, S., Diedrichsen, J., Hazeltine, E. et al. Callosotomy patients exhibit temporal uncoupling during continuous bimanual movements. Nat Neurosci 5, 376–381 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn822
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn822
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