Day 21: Planning Data

Not much has been happening recently... But I have been making progress towards my final product.

click to enlarge

Today, there are high school students all around the lab taking a tour, so we're not doing any experiments or anything. I took this free day to import all the planning data for my project into my computer. It took me less than an hour to run the code for 7 subjects (6 blocks each) using the software Spike. We use Spike to view the muscle activity as MEP values and to create Excel spreadsheets with all the data (as shown to the right). Each column represents a different variable that will become apparent once the data goes through MatLab. Columns C, D, E, and F represent the MEP values for the muscles FDI (index finger), APB (thumb), ADM (pinky), and FCR (forearm), respectively. 

Looking through some data, I've seen a trend suggesting that positioning the fingers (P) requires surprisingly more excitability then positioning + applying a force (P+F). I originally expected to find that there wouldn't be a difference in excitability between the two because the movement for each action involves the same muscles. What I did not take into account is that the two actions are controlled by different parts of the brain. But in reality, excitability of P is greater than that of P+F. This is due to the inhibition of force application. During planning, the action of force application is inhibited because the action is more intense than just positioning the fingers. 

Something important to always keep in mind when reading this blog: This entire project is based on planning dexterous movements, which is why I imported all the planning data. Planning is the period after the cue (P or P+F) is given but before the movement is actually done. Related experiments that also use TMS focus on memory, learning, consciousness, and emotion (click here to learn more).

Thanks for reading my blog!