Preparatory Cortical Modulations for Stepping Tasks with Varying Postural Complexity

We examined whether preparatory cortical activity indexed by the contingent negative variation (CNV) scales with postural complexity during step initiation. Participants performed straight and diagonal stepping in a Warning-Go paradigm while EEG was recorded; CNV epochs spanned the 2s fore period and were summarized into eight 0.25-s bins for electrode and eLORETA source-level analyses using linear mixed-effects models (n=31).

Diagonal stepping produced greater early CNV negativity at the scalp (bin 1: C1, CP3, CP1, P1, FC4; bin 2: F1, F3, FC1, Fz, F2, F4, FC2, FCz), with no electrodes favoring straight stepping.

Source analysis showed stronger engagement for diagonal stepping in bins 1-3 (0-0.75 s) across fronto-parietal sensorimotor regions, including paracentral, transverse frontopolar, superior frontal (gyrus/sulcus), supramarginal, superior parietal, intraparietal, and precentral sulcus; no regions were greater for straight stepping. These effects concentrated in the early CNV suggest enhanced anticipatory selective attention and sensory up-weighting under higher postural demands, providing a richer state estimate for scaling anticipatory postural adjustments.