1. Neuroscience

Cortical signatures of precision grip force control in children, adolescents and adults

  1. Mikkel Malling Beck  Is a corresponding author
  2. Meaghan Elizabeth Spedden
  3. Martin J Dietz
  4. Anke Ninija Karabanov
  5. Mark Schram Christensen
  6. Jesper Lundbye-Jensen
  1. University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  2. Aarhus University, Denmark
  3. Københavns Universitet, Denmark
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61018
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Cite this article
  1. Mikkel Malling Beck
  2. Meaghan Elizabeth Spedden
  3. Martin J Dietz
  4. Anke Ninija Karabanov
  5. Mark Schram Christensen
  6. Jesper Lundbye-Jensen
(2021)
Cortical signatures of precision grip force control in children, adolescents and adults
eLife 10:e61018.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61018
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Abstract

Human dexterous motor control improves from childhood to adulthood, but little is known about the changes in cortico-cortical communication that support such ontogenetic refinement of motor skills. To investigate age-related differences in connectivity between cortical regions involved in dexterous control we analyzed electroencephalographic data from 88 individuals (range 8-30y) performing a visually-guided precision grip task using Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) and Parametric Empirical Bayes (PEB). Our results demonstrate that bidirectional coupling in a canonical 'grasping network' is associated with precision grip performance across age groups. We further demonstrate greater backward coupling from higher-order to lower-order sensorimotor regions from late adolescence in addition to differential associations between connectivity strength in a premotor-prefrontal network and motor performance for different age groups. We interpret these findings as reflecting greater use of top-down and executive control processes with development. These results expand our understanding of the cortical mechanisms that support dexterous abilities through development.

Data availability

Preprocessed data analyzed in this study have been deposited to Open Science Framework, under the DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/AP7WS. Source data files have been made available for figure 1D, 4, 5 and 6.

The following data sets were generated

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Author details

  1. Mikkel Malling Beck

    Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
    For correspondence
    mib@nexs.ku.dk
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8006-2580

  2. Meaghan Elizabeth Spedden

    Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Martin J Dietz

    Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0029-6932

  4. Anke Ninija Karabanov

    Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Københavns Universitet, Copenhagen N, Denmark
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1874-393X

  5. Mark Schram Christensen

    Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Jesper Lundbye-Jensen

    Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Danish Ministry of Culture (FPK.2018-0070)

  • Mikkel Malling Beck
  • Jesper Lundbye-Jensen

Nordea-fonden (02-2016-0213)

  • Jesper Lundbye-Jensen

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: Before enrolling in the study, all participants assented to the study procedures and written informed consent was obtained from participants (> 18 years) and their parents (< 18 years). The study was approved by the regional ethical committee (protocol number: H-17019671).

Copyright

© 2021, Beck et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Mikkel Malling Beck
  2. Meaghan Elizabeth Spedden
  3. Martin J Dietz
  4. Anke Ninija Karabanov
  5. Mark Schram Christensen
  6. Jesper Lundbye-Jensen
(2021)
Cortical signatures of precision grip force control in children, adolescents and adults
eLife 10:e61018.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61018

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61018

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