Cerebral-cortical networking and activation increase as a function of cognitive-motor task difficulty

Excessive increases in task difficulty typically result in marked attenuation of cognitive-motor performance. The psychomotor efficiency hypothesis suggests that poor performance is mediated by non-essential neural activity and cerebral cortical networking (inefficient cortical dynamics). This phenomenon may underlie the inverse relationship between excessive task difficulty and performance. However, investigation of the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis as it relates to task difficulty has not been conducted. The present study used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine cerebral cortical dynamics while participants were challenged with both Easy and Hard conditions during a cognitive-motor task (Tetris^®). In accord with the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis, it was predicted that with increases in task difficulty, participants would demonstrate greater ‘neural effort,’ as indexed by EEG spectral power and cortical networking (i.e., EEG coherence) between the premotor (motor planning) region and sensory, executive, and motor regions. Increases in neural activation and cortical networking were observed during the Hard condition relative to the Easy condition, thus supporting the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis. To further determine the unique contributions of cognitive versus sensory-motor demands, a control experiment was conducted in which cognitive demand was increased while sensory-motor demand was held constant. This experiment revealed that regionally specific neural activation was influenced by changes in cognitive demand, whereas cortical networking to the motor planning region was sensitive only to changes in sensory-motor demand. Crucially, the present study is the first, to our knowledge, to characterize the separate impact of cognitive versus sensory-motor demands on cerebral cortical dynamics. The findings further inform the dynamics of the cortical processes that underlie the quality of cognitive-motor performance particularly with regard to task difficulty. A broader understanding of the brain and muscle interactions during varying levels of challenge may inform the design of effective training protocols aimed at optimizing cognitive-motor performance.