Beta band frequency differences between motor and frontal cortices in reaching movements

Movement is associated with power changes over sensory-motor areas in different frequency ranges, including beta (15-30 Hz). In fact, beta power starts decreasing before the movement onset (event-related desynchronization, ERD) and rebounds after its end (event-related synchronization, ERS). There is increasing evidence that beta modulation depth (measured as ERD-ERS difference) increases with practice in a planar reaching task, suggesting that this measure may reflect plasticity processes. In the present work, we analyzed beta ERD, ERS and modulation depth in healthy subjects to determine their changes over three regions of interest (ROIs): right and left sensorimotor and frontal areas, during a reaching task with the right arm. We found that ERD, ERS and modulation depth increased with practice with lower values over the right sensory-motor area. Timing of peak ERD and ERS were similar across ROIs, with ERS peak occurring earlier in later sets. Finally, we found that beta ERS of the frontal ROI involved higher beta range (23-29 Hz) than the sensory-motor ROIs (15-18 Hz). Altogether these results suggest that practice in a reaching task is associated with modification of beta power and timing. Additionally, beta ERS may have different functional meaning in the three ROIs, as suggested by the involvement of upper and lower beta bands in the frontal and sensorimotor ROIs, respectively.