The human subthalamic nucleus is activated earlier during internally paced single and sequential movements compared to externally paced movements

Objective: Activation of the human basal ganglia (BG) has been shown during the preparation and execution of movement. However, to which degree the BG are involved in the preparation of externally and internally paced movements is not entirely clear. Findings in animal studies emphasized changes in the discharge of single neurons in the BG only after movement onset. We investigated the activation of the human subthalamic nucleus (STN) before movement onset as indexed by an event related desynchronization (ERD) of local field potential (LFP) activity in the 8–35Hz band during performance of different types of mov…