Role of the primary motor and dorsal premotor cortices in the anticipation of forces during object lifting

When lifting small objects, people apply forces that match the expected weight of the object. This expectation relies in part on information acquired during a previous lift and on associating a certain weight with a particular object. Our study examined the role of the primary motor and dorsal premotor cortices in predicting weight based either on information acquired during a previous lift ( no- cue experiment) or on arbitrary color cues associated with a particular weight ( cue experiment). In the two experiments, subjects used precision grip to lift two different weights in a series of trials both before and after we applied low- frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary motor and dorsal premotor cortices. In the no- cue experiment, subjects did not receive any previous information about which of two weights they would have to lift. In the cue experiment, a color cue provided information about which of the two weights subjects would have to lift. Our results demonstrate a double dissociation in the effects induced by repetitive stimulation. When applied over the primary motor cortex, repetitive stimulation disrupted the scaling of forces based on information acquired during a previous lift. In contrast, when applied over the dorsal premotor cortex, repetitive stimulation disrupted the scaling of forces based on arbitrary color cues. We conclude that the primary motor and dorsal premotor cortices have unique roles during the anticipatory scaling of forces associated with the lifting of different weights.