Gating at cortical level contributes to auditory-motor synchronization during repetitive finger tapping

Abstract Sensory integration contributes to temporal coordination of the movement with external rhythms. How the information flowing of sensory inputs is regulated with increasing tapping rates and its function remains unknown. Here, somatosensory evoked potentials to ulnar nerve stimulation were recorded during auditory-cued repetitive right-index finger tapping at 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 Hz in 13 healthy subjects. We found that sensory inputs were suppressed at subcortical level (represented by P14) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1, represented by N20/P25) during repetitive tapping. This suppression was decreased in S1 but not in subcortical level during fast repetitive tapping (2, 3, and 4 Hz) compared with slow repetitive tapping (0.5 and 1 Hz). Furthermore, we assessed the ability to analyze temporal information in S1 by measuring the somatosensory temporal discrimination threshold (STDT). STDT increased during fast repetitive tapping compared with slow repetitive tapping, which was negatively correlated with the task performance of phase shift and positively correlated with the peak-to-peak amplitude (% of resting) in S1 but not in subcortical level. These novel findings indicate that the increased sensory input (lower sensory gating) in S1 may lead to greater temporal uncertainty for sensorimotor integration dereasing the performance of repetitive movement during increasing tapping rates.