title: Primary motor and sensory cortex activation during motor performance and motor imagery: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
abstract: The intensity and spatial distribution of functional activation in the left precentral and postcentral gyri during actual motor performance (MP) and mental representation [motor imagery (MI)] of self-paced finger-to-thumb opposition movements of the dominant hand were investigated in fourteen right-handed volunteers by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. Significant increases in mean normalized fMRI signal intensities over values obtained during the control (visual imagery) tasks were found in a region including the anterior bank and crown of the central sulcus, the presumed site of the primary motor cortex, during both MP (mean percentage increase, 2.1%) and MI (0.8%). In the anterior portion of the precentral gyrus and the postcentral gyrus, mean functional activity levels were also increased during both conditions (MP, 1.7 and 1.2%; MI, 0.6 and 0.4%, respectively). To locate activated foci during MI, MP, or both conditions, the time course of the signal intensities of pixels lying in the precentral or postcentral gyrus was plotted against single-step or double-step waveforms, where the steps of the waveform corresponded to different tasks. Pixels significantly (r > 0.7) activated during both MP and MI were identified in each region in the majority of subjects; percentage increases in signal intensity during MI were on average 30% as great as increases during MP. The pixels activated during both MP and MI appear to represent a large fraction of the whole population activated during MP. These results support the hypothesis that MI and MP involve overlapping neural networks in perirolandic cortical areas.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Tecnologie Biomediche, Università di Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Porro
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Francescato
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cettolo
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Diamond
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baraldi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zuiani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bazzocchi
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: di Prampero
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*