Differences in the movement phase condition and sensory inputs on temporal synchronization and continuation during bilateral foot-tapping tasks.

Abstract

In the sensorimotor synchronization (synchronized and continuous tapping) task, subjects move their limbs in synchrony with an isochronous tone presented at various tempos and continue tapping at the same pace after the tones have ceased. We investigated the ability of bilateral lower limb motor control for performing this task as a crucial metric for examining motor coordination relevant to human locomotion, such as walking. Here, sensory information such as auditory and tactile inputs is considered to improve the accuracy of sensorimotor synchronization. In this study, we explored the change in tapping variability of rhythmic motor control of the bilateral lower limb with different movement phase conditions in the presence or absence of sensory information. Thirty-three healthy volunteers performed three types of foot-tapping tasks: synchronization-continuation (SC-tap), air-tapping (A-tap), and a combination of both (SCA-tap). Participants were instructed to tap the foot-switch (or perform a similar movement in the A-tap) in synchrony with the tones presented at fixed interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between 500 and 4,800 ms. Taps were performed with either unilateral foot or, in the case of bilateral movements, with both feet, either simultaneously (in-phase) or alternately for bilateral movements (antiphase). The synchronizing tapping error and the inter-tap interval (ITI) were evaluated. The coefficient of variation (CV) of ITI was significantly smaller for the antiphase condition than for the unilateral or in-phase conditions in the SC-tap and SCA-tap tasks. In addition, considering the timing of taps on both sides, the CV was significantly lower for antiphase only in the SC-tap task. The findings indicated that the antiphase condition exhibited superior temporal stability in repetitive lower limb movements. The findings also underscored the significance of tactile feedback from the soles of the feet when stability of rhythmic limb movements unpaced by the tones in antiphase movements was taken into consideration.