Assessment of Motor Cortex in Active, Passive and Imagery Wrist Movement Using Functional MRI

Background: Functional Magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures the small fluctuation of blood flow happening during task-fMRI in brain regions. Objective: This research investigated these active, imagery and passive movements in volunteers design to permit a comparison of their capabilities in activating the brain areas.Material and Methods: In this applied research, the activity of the motor cortex during the right-wrist movement was evaluated in 10 normal volunteers under active, passive, and imagery conditions. T2* weighted, three-dimensional functional images were acquired using a BOLD sensitive gradient-echo EPI (echo planar imaging) sequence with echo time (TE) of 30 ms and repetition time (TR) of 2000 ms. The functional data, which included 248 volumes per subject and condition, were acquired using the blocked design paradigm. The images were analyzed by the SPM12 toolbox, MATLAB software. Results: The findings determined a significant increase in signal intensity of the motor cortex while performing the test compared to the rest time (p< 0.05). It was also observed that the active areas in hand representation of the motor cortex are different in terms of locations and the number of voxels in different wrist directions. Moreover, the findings showed that the position of active centers in the brain is different in active, passive, and imagery conditions. Conclusion: Results confirm that primary motor cortex neurons play an essential role in the processing of complex information and are designed to control the direction of movement. It seems that the findings of this study can be applied for rehabilitation studies.

[1]  Kazumi Iseki,et al.  Neural mechanisms involved in mental imagery and observation of gait , 2008, NeuroImage.

[2]  Davis M. Glasser,et al.  Effects of Action Observation on Physical Training After Stroke , 2008, Stroke.

[3]  David A. Westwood,et al.  Neural Coding of Movement Direction in the Healthy Human Brain , 2010, PloS one.

[4]  M. Diamond,et al.  Primary Motor and Sensory Cortex Activation during Motor Performance and Motor Imagery: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[5]  Sarah H. Szynkiewicz,et al.  Motor Imagery Practice and Increased Tongue Strength: A Case Series Feasibility Report. , 2019, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[6]  M. Schmuckler,et al.  The representing brain : Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery , 2009 .

[7]  Scott H. Johnson-Frey.  Stimulation through simulation? Motor imagery and functional reorganization in hemiplegic stroke patients , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[8]  Julien Doyon,et al.  Functional cerebral reorganization following motor sequence learning through mental practice with motor imagery , 2003, NeuroImage.

[9]  I. Zijdewind,et al.  Corticospinal excitability during observation and imagery of simple and complex hand tasks: Implications for motor rehabilitation , 2010, Behavioural Brain Research.

[10]  YauYau Wai,et al.  The cortical modulation from the external cues during gait observation and imagination , 2008, Neuroscience Letters.

[11]  P. Roland,et al.  I Feel My Hand Moving A New Role of the Primary Motor Cortex in Somatic Perception of Limb Movement , 2002, Neuron.

[12]  R Caminiti,et al.  Making arm movements within different parts of space: the premotor and motor cortical representation of a coordinate system for reaching to visual targets , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[13]  D. Hoffman,et al.  Muscle and movement representations in the primary motor cortex. , 1999, Science.

[14]  Maziar Jalalvandi,et al.  Optical Imaging of the Motor Cortex in the Brain in Order to Determine the Direction of the Hand Movements Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) , 2018 .

[15]  M. Jalalvandi,et al.  Assessment of Brain Cortical Activation in Passive Movement During Wrist Task Using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) , 2019, Frontiers in Biomedical Technologies.

[16]  A P Georgopoulos,et al.  On the relations between the direction of two-dimensional arm movements and cell discharge in primate motor cortex , 1982, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[17]  C. Richards,et al.  Potential role of mental practice using motor imagery in neurologic rehabilitation. , 2001, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[18]  M. Lotze,et al.  Motor imagery , 2006, Journal of Physiology-Paris.

[19]  Stephen M. Smith,et al.  General multilevel linear modeling for group analysis in FMRI , 2003, NeuroImage.

[20]  Kotaro Ikeda,et al.  Participation of primary motor cortex area 4a in complex sensory processing: 3.0-T fMRI study , 2009, Neuroreport.

[21]  Timothy D. Lee,et al.  Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis , 1982 .

[22]  R. Stark,et al.  Neural activation in cognitive motor processes: comparing motor imagery and observation of gymnastic movements , 2008, Experimental Brain Research.

[23]  M. Jeannerod.  The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery , 1994, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[24]  D. Wade,et al.  The effects of mental practice in stroke rehabilitation: a systematic review. , 2006, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[25]  F. Chollet,et al.  Neural Correlates of Proprioceptive Integration in the Contralesional Hemisphere of Very Impaired Patients Shortly After a Subcortical Stroke: An fMRI Study , 2008, Neurorehabilitation and neural repair.

[26]  Steven C. Cramer,et al.  Effects of motor imagery training after chronic, complete spinal cord injury , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[27]  R. Porter,et al.  Afferent input to movement-related precentral neurones in conscious monkeys , 1976, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[28]  J. Kalaska,et al.  Cerebellar neuronal activity related to whole-arm reaching movements in the monkey. , 1989, Journal of neurophysiology.

[29]  S. Cramer,et al.  Brain motor system function after chronic, complete spinal cord injury. , 2005, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[30]  M. Jeannerod,et al.  Mentally simulated movements in virtual reality: does Fitt's law hold in motor imagery? , 1995, Behavioural Brain Research.

[31]  J. Lancaster,et al.  Using the talairach atlas with the MNI template , 2001, NeuroImage.

[32]  D. Hoffman,et al.  Direction of action is represented in the ventral premotor cortex , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[33]  André J. Szameitat,et al.  Motor imagery of complex everyday movements. An fMRI study , 2007, NeuroImage.

[34]  R. Lemon.  Neural control of dexterity: what has been achieved? , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[35]  T. Mima,et al.  Brain structures related to active and passive finger movements in man. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[36]  K. Zentgraf,et al.  Cognitive motor processes: The role of motor imagery in the study of motor representations , 2009, Brain Research Reviews.

[37]  Yi Wu,et al.  Neurophysiological substrates of stroke patients with motor imagery-based brain-computer interface training , 2014, The International journal of neuroscience.

[38]  G. Fink,et al.  Neurofunctional modulation of brain regions by distinct forms of motor cognition and movement features , 2009, Human brain mapping.

[39]  W. Byblow,et al.  The effects of repetitive proprioceptive stimulation on corticomotor representation in intact and hemiplegic individuals , 2004, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[40]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: interpretations and misinterpretations , 2010, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[41]  Annette Sterr,et al.  Effector‐dependent activity in the left dorsal premotor cortex in motor imagery , 2007, The European journal of neuroscience.

[42]  Jonathan D. Nelson,et al.  Human cortical representations for reaching: Mirror neurons for execution, observation, and imagery , 2007, NeuroImage.

[43]  Fuminari Kaneko,et al.  Decreased cortical excitability during motor imagery after disuse of an upper limb in humans , 2003, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[44]  J L Lancaster,et al.  Automated Talairach Atlas labels for functional brain mapping , 2000, Human brain mapping.

[45]  M. Jeannerod,et al.  Mental imaging of motor activity in humans , 1999, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[46]  D. Landers,et al.  The effects of mental practice on motor skill learning and performance: A meta-analysis. , 1983 .

[47]  J. Krakauer.  Motor learning: its relevance to stroke recovery and neurorehabilitation. , 2006, Current opinion in neurology.

[48]  F. Tremblay,et al.  Differential modulation of corticospinal excitability during observation, mental imagery and imitation of hand actions , 2004, Neuropsychologia.

[49]  Ehud Zohary,et al.  Functional Organization of Human Motor Cortex: Directional Selectivity for Movement , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[50]  Simon Mathews,et al.  On the equivalence of executed and imagined movements: Evidence from lateralized motor and nonmotor potentials , 2009, Human brain mapping.