Soutenance de thèse de Antoine Schwej, CoMco team

Wednesday 13th December 2023, 10 AM, Gastaut meeting room

Antoine Schwej, CoMco team (Contrôle Moteur Cognitif)
Multifaceted role of medial cortical beta activity in encoding qualitatively distinct feedback signals

Abstract: Beta-band modulations (13-35 Hz) have been observed in cognitive and/or motor adaptation tasks, following rewards, task outcome feedback, and errors. However, reconciling the findings from different studies has proven challenging. Some studies examining cognitive response selection tasks reported an increase in
beta-band activity after receiving rewards, while others observed increased beta power following negative feedback. Additionally, in motor adaptation tasks, there is a decrease in the post-movement beta rebound after movement-execution errors caused by visual or mechanical perturbations. This raises the question of how
contradictory modulations, such as a decrease in beta power with movement errors versus an increase with negative feedback, can coexist. To explore this further, we designed a motor adaptation task that exposed human participants to various types of feedback, including binary success/failure feedback, kinematic errors,
and sensory-prediction errors. Our study demonstrates that beta-band modulations can occur in opposite directions at different spatial locations, time windows, and frequency ranges. Firstly, we observed opposite modulations in high-beta power within the medial-frontal cortex, with distinct temporal separations when
comparing success and failure trials. Specifically, power was higher in successful trials immediately after receiving binary success feedback but lower during the post-movement period compared to failed trials. Secondly, while medial-frontal high-beta activity was sensitive to task outcomes, we observed a significant attenuation of low-beta power in the medial-parietal cortex following movement-execution errors, unaffected by task outcome or sensory-prediction errors. These findings suggest that medial beta activity, with its various
spatio-temporo-spectral configurations, plays a multifaceted role in encoding qualitatively distinct feedback signals.

Jury:

Rapporteure externe: BEN HAMED Suliann, Directrice de recherche ISC Marc Jeannerod – UMR 5239

Rapporteur externe: DEROSIERE Gérard, Charge de recherche INSERM  Lyon Research Center for Neuroscience (CRNL) – ImpAct Team

Examinatrice interne: LONGCAMP Marieke, Enseignante chercheureuse Professeure des Universités AMU Laboratoire de neurosciences cognitives – UMR 7291

Examinateur interne: EUSEBIO Alexandre, PU-PH APHM HOPITAL LA TIMONE

Examinatrice externe: BROWN Liana, Professor Department of Psychology at the University of Western Peterborough, Canada

Examinateur externe: LEFEVRE Philippe, Professeur Université Catholique de Louvain Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique

Co-superviseure: BAHUGUNA Jyotika (CoAx Lab, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA)

Superviseure: KILAVIK Bjørg, Chargée de recherche (INT, Marseille)