BACKGROUND: The detection of motor evoked potential is utilized to explore neuromuscular finger coordination. The influence of transcranial magnetic stimulation on finger force has been investigated mainly on a single finger, and only time-dependent increased target finger force has been detected in the finger force task. OBJECTIVE: To explore the neural mechanism of finger force coordination in the motor cortex by observing the influence of various finger coordination patterns and patterns of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced finger force changes.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: Neurophysiological and behavioral study was performed at the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory of Chongqing University from April to June 2008. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 10 healthy, university students, comprising 5 males and 5 females, aged 21-23 years, voluntarily participated in this study. All participants were right-handed, with normal or corrected vision. Individuals with upper limb complaints or other musculoskeletal disorders were excluded.METHODS: A target force-tracking task was conducted on the index finger, the index and middle fingers, and four fingers (index, middle, ring, and little), respectively. Target force trace in a single trial consisted of a 6-second ramp phase, a 20-second constant phase, and a 6-second drop phase. During experimentation, an unpredictable single-pulse TMS (120% motor threshold) was applied to the primary motor cortex (M1) in each phase.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in peak force induced by TMS were obtained for each finger pattern during each force-tracking phase. Differences in force changes were tested between different finger patterns with regard to ramp, constant, and drop phases of target force.RESULTS: Under ramp, constant, and drop phases of target force, the increase in magnetic stimulation-induced finger forces changes positively correlated with the number of fingers involved in the force tracking task. The magnetic stimulation-induced force changes from the index finger were less than the combination of the index and middle fingers or all four fingers under the corresponding target force, and the force changes from the combination of the index and middle fingers were less than all four fingers, i.e., index finger < index and middle fingers < four fingers.CONCLUSION: Different neuromuscular mechanisms could be involved in finger force production for different finger combination patterns. Results from the present study suggested that independent motor neurons regulated individual finger force production.