Lateralised Transmission of Beta Oscillations From Cortex to Muscle During Movement Cancellation Reflects Selective Motor Inhibition
- 1Imperial College London
Abstract
Beta oscillations in the sensorimotor cortex are modulated across various stages of motor control, including movement preparation and cancellation, and are known to project to the motor neuron pool and muscles during Go/No-Go tasks. While these oscillations have been linked to motor inhibition, the specificity of their transmission to end-effector muscles during movement cancellation remains unclear. We investigated the selectivity of beta-band activity using a lateralised Go/No-Go paradigm. Participants maintained steady bimanual wrist extensor contractions and either executed a unilateral ballistic wrist extension (Go) or cancelled the planned movement (No-Go). Concurrent electroencephalographic and electromyographic recordings were measured throughout. Successful movement cancellation was characterised by contralateral cortical beta modulation accompanied by stronger and more clearly lateralised peripheral beta synchronisation in the muscle associated with the suppressed movement. Peripheral beta activity exhibited greater magnitude and clearer separability between left- and right-sided conditions than cortical signals. These findings demonstrate effector-specific brain-to-muscle beta transmission during movement cancellation and highlight the potential of peripheral measures to provide enhanced resolution of motor cortical dynamics.
Related
- Selective inhibition of anaerobic ubiquinone biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Structural and Kinetic Basis for Selective Inhibition of Canine Myeloperoxidase by Staphylococcal Peroxidase Inhibitor (SPIN) Orthologs
- Characterizing the metabolic effects of the selective inhibition of gut microbial β-glucuronidases in mice
- Hippocampal CA3 connectomics reveals a gradient of mossy fiber inputs and selective feedforward inhibition onto pyramidal cells
- IL-11 in fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease: historical agonism, the selective-inhibition hypothesis, and evidence thresholds for translation
BibTeX
@misc{mcgeady2026lateralised,
title = {{Lateralised Transmission of Beta Oscillations From Cortex to Muscle During Movement Cancellation Reflects Selective Motor Inhibition}},
author = {C. McGeady and J. Ibanez and M. Sarasquete and T. Jia and D. Farina},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.11.750861},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750861v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Lateralised Transmission of Beta Oscillations From Cortex to Muscle During Movement Cancellation Reflects Selective Motor Inhibition
AU - C. McGeady
AU - J. Ibanez
AU - M. Sarasquete
AU - T. Jia
AU - D. Farina
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.11.750861
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750861v1
AB - Beta oscillations in the sensorimotor cortex are modulated across various stages of motor control, including movement preparation and cancellation, and are known to project to the motor neuron pool and muscles during Go/No-Go tasks. While these oscillations have been linked to motor inhibition, the specificity of their transmission to end-effector muscles during movement cancellation remains unclear. We investigated the selectivity of beta-band activity using a lateralised Go/No-Go paradigm. Participants maintained steady bimanual wrist extensor contractions and either executed a unilateral ballistic wrist extension (Go) or cancelled the planned movement (No-Go). Concurrent electroencephalographic and electromyographic recordings were measured throughout. Successful movement cancellation was characterised by contralateral cortical beta modulation accompanied by stronger and more clearly lateralised peripheral beta synchronisation in the muscle associated with the suppressed movement. Peripheral beta activity exhibited greater magnitude and clearer separability between left- and right-sided conditions than cortical signals. These findings demonstrate effector-specific brain-to-muscle beta transmission during movement cancellation and highlight the potential of peripheral measures to provide enhanced resolution of motor cortical dynamics.
ER -