To induce transcallosal motor interference on the activity of the left muscle, TMS was delivered to the left M1 using a magnetic stimulator (Magstim 200; Magstim Co., UK) with a figure-of-eight-shaped coil (each diameter 70 mm). The coil was located at a hot-spot where weak stimulation elicited the largest motor response in the right abductor pollicis brevis (APB), and was held tangentially over the

scalp and rotated clockwise at 45°. The induced current in the cortex was set to run in the posterior–anterior direction. The stimulus intensity was set at 1.5 times the resting motor threshold (RMT). This intensity was quite strong because we aimed to induce an observable perturbation in the abduction force of the left thumb. However, we LDK378 nmr confirmed that TCI tested during isometric contraction was not saturated at this intensity

(Supporting Information Fig. S1). The RMT was defined as the minimum stimulus intensity that produced a > 50 μV motor evoked potential (MEP) at the right APB in at least 5 out of 10 consecutive trials. The participants sat comfortably on a reclining chair with both shoulders and elbow angles semi-flexed throughout the experiment. Their left and right hands were separately placed on wooden boards with their palms downward. Each hand was strapped at the metacarpophalangeal joints of four fingers selleck and the wrists. The thumbs were extended approximately Bay 11-7085 40° and the thumb cushion was in contact with a horizontal metal plate (Fig. 1A). The contact area was confined to 20 × 20 mm and was covered with a rubber sheet. The force regulation task was constructed on the basis of our previous experimental design (Kida et al., 2004). The participants were instructed to perform bimanual thumb abductions under visuomotor tracking. The target line moved sinusoidally up and down at 0.1 Hz on the right half of a dual-beam oscilloscope

screen (VC-9; Nihon Kohden, Japan) positioned in front of the participants at a distance of 60 cm (Fig. 1A). The range of the target line displacement on the oscilloscope was 8 cm in height, which corresponded to a force range from 1 to 11 N (with a resolution of approximately 0.02 N). Left and right abduction forces were displayed as horizontal lines on the left and right half of the oscilloscope, respectively. In the symmetric condition, bilateral forces were displayed in the same manner; when the participant pushed the plates with both thumbs, both lines moved from bottom to top (Fig. 1B). Under this condition, the participants tracked the target line with bilateral thumb abduction forces in a symmetrical manner. In contrast, in the asymmetric condition, the right force line was displayed upside down by using an inverse function switch (Fig. 1C).