Motor imagery while judging object-hand interactions.
Because corticospinal excitability, as assessed with transcranial magnetic stimulation, has been repeatedly shown to increase during motor imagery, we used this approach to determine whether appreciating object-hand interactions involves motor imagery. Corticospinal excitability was measured in nine healthy participants who were asked to decide whether a hand presented in a given posture was compatible with the use of an object. The control task consisted in deciding whether two hands were in the same posture; a dimming task was used to determine the baseline. We found a significant increase in corticospinal excitability while judging object-hand interactions in comparison with the two other tasks. This finding suggests that predicting the consequences of an action involves implicit motor imagery.
Pelgrims
Barbara
B
Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Université catholique de Louvain, 54 Avenue Hippocrate, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Andres
Michaël
M
Olivier
Etienne
E
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects