Reduced alpha-gamma phase amplitude coupling over right parietal cortex is associated with implicit visuomotor sequence learning

Implicit visuomotor sequence learning is important for our daily life, e.g., when writing or playing an instrument. Previous research identified a network of cortical regions that is relevant for motor sequence learning, namely primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, superior parietal cortex, and subcortical regions, including basal ganglia and cerebellum. Here, we investigated learning-related changes in oscillatory activity (theta, alpha and gamma power) and cross-frequency interactions (theta- and alpha-gamma phase-amplitude coupling) within cortical regions during sensorimotor memory formation. EEG was recorded from a large group of participants (n = 73) performing the serial reaction time task (SRTT). Posterior parietal alpha power was larger early-on during sequence learning and smaller in later sessions. Alpha/low-gamma (8-13 Hz and 30-48 Hz) phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) was significantly smaller during sequence learning over right superior parietal cortex and frontal cortex. During the transition from sequential stimuli to random stimuli, participants made more errors, indicating that they still implicitly attempted to implement the learned motor sequence. At the same time, alpha/low-gamma phase-amplitude coupling was found to be smaller during the transition relative to later random trials. Our results show that learning and implementing a learned motor sequence reduces alpha/low-gamma PAC over parietal and frontal cortex. Fronto-parietal alpha/low-gamma PAC might be relevant for visuomotor mapping which becomes less relevant once the motor sequence has been encoded. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.