µ-rhythm phase from somatosensory but not motor cortex correlates with corticospinal excitability in EEG-triggered TMS

Background: Sensorimotor µ-rhythm phase is correlated with corticospinal excitability. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of motor cortex results in larger motor evoked potentials (MEPs) during the negative peak of the EEG oscillation as extracted with a surface Laplacian. However, the anatomical source of the relevant oscillation is not clear and demonstration of the relationship is sensitive to the choice of EEG montage. Objective/hypothesis: Here, we compared two EEG montages preferentially sensitive to oscillations originating from the crown of precentral gyrus (dorsal premotor cortex) vs. postcentral gyrus (secondary somatosensory cortex). We hypothesized that the EEG signal from precentral gyrus would correlate more strongly with MEP amplitude, given that the corticospinal neurons are located in the anterior wall of the sulcus and the corticospinal tract has input from premotor cortex. New method: Real-time EEG-triggered TMS of motor cortex was applied in 6 different conditions in randomly interleaved order, 3 phase conditions (positive peak, negative peak, random phase of the ongoing µ-oscillation), and each phase condition for 2 different EEG montages corresponding to oscillations preferentially originating in precentral gyrus (premotor cortex) vs. postcentral gyrus (somatosensory cortex), extracted using FCC3h vs. C3 centered EEG montages. Results: The negative vs. positive peak of sensorimotor µ-rhythm as extracted from the C3 montage (postcentral gyrus, somatosensory cortex) correlated with states of high vs. low corticospinal excitability (p < 0.001), replicating previous findings. However, no significant correlation was found for sensorimotor µ-rhythm as extracted from the neighboring FCC3 montage (precentral gyrus, premotor cortex). This implies that EEG-signals from the somatosensory cortex are better predictors of corticospinal excitability than EEG-signals from the motor areas. Conclusions: The extraction of a brain oscillation whose phase corresponds to corticospinal excitability is highly sensitive to the selected EEG montage and the location of the EEG sensors on the scalp. Here, the cortical source of EEG oscillations predicting response amplitude does not correspond to the cortical target of the stimulation, indicating that even in this simple case, a specific neuronal pathway from somatosensory cortex to primary motor cortex is involved.