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Why is there symptom coupling of psychological and motor changes in psychomotor mechanisms? Insights from the brain’s topography

Molecular Psychiatry volume 26, pages 3669–3671 (2021)Cite this article

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Imagine a large group of people in a party room. Sooner or later, the group will differentiate with different subgroups standing in different corners and parts of the room. While at the beginning, the subgroups will distinguish from each other, later there will be some exchange with some people from one subgroup walking to another one and so forth. These exchanges will increase until, after a while, some may suggest why not getting all together and make a global exchange.

This situation occurs almost, analogously, in the human brain. One such subgroup is the basal ganglia while another subgroup consists in the various thalamic nuclei. If finally the whole group gets together again, one may conceive that as analogous to the cortex where all the subcortical subgroups converge. This is the picture we sketched in our narrative review on psychomotor mechanisms [1]. Rather than recruiting specific and exclusive regions or pathways, these psychomotor mechanisms can be characterized as relationships or balances like the balance of (i) dopamine- and substantia nigra-based subcortical–cortical motor circuit by primarily non-motor subcortical raphe nucleus and serotonin via basal ganglia and thalamus (as well as by glutamate and GABA); (ii) cortical motor networks to other networks like default-mode and sensory networks; and (iii) global cortical activity to motor cortex [1].

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Acknowledgements

GN acknowledges financial support from Canada Research Chair (CRC), the CIHR, the Michael Smith Foundation, the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, the Seventh Hospital for Mental Health in Hangzhou/China, and the National Science Foundation of China (NSF).

Funding

DH and RCW were supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, grant number DFG HI 1928/2-1 to DH, WO 1883/2-1 and WO 1883/6-1 to RCW).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Georg Northoff, Dusan Hirjak

  2. These authors contributed equally: Paola Magioncalda, Matteo Martino

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mental Health Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Georg Northoff

  2. Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Georg Northoff

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

    Dusan Hirjak

  4. Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Robert C. Wolf

  5. Graduate Institute of Mind Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Paola Magioncalda & Matteo Martino

  6. Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Taipei Medical University—Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Paola Magioncalda & Matteo Martino

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Correspondence to Georg Northoff or Dusan Hirjak.

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Northoff, G., Hirjak, D., Wolf, R.C. et al. Why is there symptom coupling of psychological and motor changes in psychomotor mechanisms? Insights from the brain’s topography. Mol Psychiatry 26, 3669–3671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00945-7

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