Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex modulates supplementary motor area in coordinated unimanual motor behavior

Motor control is integral to all types of human behavior, and the dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) is thought to play an important role in the brain network underlying motor control. Yet the role of the dACC in motor control is under-characterized. Here we aimed to characterize the dACC’s role in adolescent brain network interactions during a simple motor control task involving visually coordinated unimanual finger movements. Network interactions were assessed using both undirected and directed functional connectivity analysis of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent (BOLD) signals, comparing the task with a rest condition. The relation between the dACC and Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) was compared to that between the dACC and Primary Motor Cortex (M1). The directed signal from dACC to SMA was significantly elevated during motor control in the task. By contrast, the directed signal from SMA to dACC, both directed signals between dACC and M1, and the undirected functional connections of dACC with SMA and M1, all did not differ between task and rest. Undirected coupling of dACC with both SMA and dACC, and only the dACC-to-SMA directed signal, were significantly greater for a proactive than a reactive task condition, suggesting that dACC plays a role in motor control by maintaining stimulus timing expectancy. Overall, these results suggest that the dACC selectively modulates the SMA during visually coordinated unimanual behavior in adolescence. The role of the dACC as an important brain area for the mediation of task-related motor control may be in place in adolescence, continuing into adulthood. The task and analytic approach described here should be extended to the study of healthy adults to examine network profiles of the dACC during basic motor behavior.