Modeling effects of cerebellar and basal ganglia lesions on adaptation and anticipation during sensorimotor synchronization

This study addressed the role of subcortical brain structures in temporal adaptation and anticipation during sensorimotor synchronization. The performance of patients with cerebellar or basal ganglia lesions was compared with that of healthy control participants on tasks requiring the synchronization of drum strokes with adaptive and tempo-changing auditory pacing sequences. The precision of sensorimotor synchronization was generally lower in patients relative to controls (i.e., variability of asynchronies was higher in patients), although synchronization accuracy (mean asynchrony) was commensurate. A computational model of adaptation and anticipation (ADAM) was used to examine potential sources of individual differences in precision by estimating participants’ use of error correction, temporal prediction, and the amount of variability associated with central timekeeping and peripheral motor processes. Parameter estimates based on ADAM indicate that impaired precision was attributable to increased variability of timekeeper and motor processes as well as to reduced temporal prediction in both patient groups. Adaptive processes related to continuously applied error correction were, by contrast, intact in patients. These findings highlight the importance of investigating how subcortical structures, including the cerebellum and basal ganglia, interact with a broader network of cortical regions to support temporal adaptation and anticipation during sensorimotor synchronization.