Effects of Visual Context upon Functional Connectivity during Observation of Biological Motions

Magaly Hars (1) , Mélany Hars (2) , Cornelis J Stam (3) , Claire Calmels (1)

1 SEP (EA7370) - French Institute of Sport (INSEP), Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA7370)
2 LAMIH - Laboratoire d'Automatique, de Mécanique et d'Informatique industrielles et Humaines - UMR 8201
3 Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, VU Univerity Medical Center

The aim of this study was to examine brain responses, in particular functional connectivity, to different visual stimuli depicting familiar biological motions. Ten subjects actively observed familiar biological motions embedded in point-light and video displays. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 64 electrodes. Activity was considered in three frequency bands (4–8 Hz, 8–10 Hz, and 10–13 Hz) using a non-linear measure of functional connectivity. In the 4–8 Hz and 8–10 Hz frequency bands, functional connectivity for the SMA was greater during the observation of biological motions presented in a point-light display compared to the observation of motions presented in a video display. The reverse was observed for the 4–8 Hz frequency band for the left temporal area. Explanations related to: (i) the task demands (i.e., attention and mental effort), (ii) the role(s) of theta and alpha oscillations in cognitive processes, and (iii) the function(s) of cortical areas are discussed. It has been suggested that attention was required to process human biological motions under unfamiliar viewing conditions such as point-light display.

Mots clés: Neurosciences; Functional Connectivity

Domaines: Sport; Sciences cognitives du sport; Neurosciences

Magaly Hars, Mélany Hars, Cornelis J Stam, Claire Calmels. Effects of Visual Context upon Functional Connectivity during Observation of Biological Motions. PLoS ONE, 2011, 6 (10), pp.e25903. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0025903⟩. ⟨hal-01576450⟩