Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Oct 2013)
Phase-Amplitude Cross-Frequency Coupling in the Human Nucleus Accumbens Tracks Action Monitoring during Cognitive Control
Abstract
The Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) is an important structure for the transfer of informationbetween cortical and subcortical structures, especially the prefrontal cortex and thehippocampus. However, the mechanism that allows the NAcc to achieve this integration is notwell understood. Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling (PAC) of oscillations in differentfrequency bands has been proposed as an effective mechanism to form functional networks tooptimize transfer and integration of information. Here we assess PAC between theta and highgamma oscillations as a potential mechanism that facilitates motor adaptation. To address thisissue we recorded intracranial field potentials directly from the bilateral human NAcc in threepatients while they performed a motor learning task that varied in the level of cognitive controlneeded to perform the task. As in rodents, PAC was observable in the human NAcc, transientlyoccurring contralateral to a movement following the motor response. Importantly, PAC correlatedwith the level of cognitive control needed to monitor the action performed.This functional relationindicates that the NAcc is engaged in action monitoring and supports the evaluation of motorprograms during adaptive behavior by means of PAC.
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