title: Motor execution and motor imagery: a comparison of functional connectivity patterns based on graph theory.
abstract: Motor execution and imagery (ME and MI), as the basic abilities of human beings, have been considered to be effective strategies in motor skill learning and motor abilities rehabilitation. Neuroimaging studies have revealed several critical regions from functional activation for ME as well as MI. Recently, investigations have probed into functional connectivity of ME; however, few explorations compared the functional connectivity between the two tasks. With betweenness centrality (BC) of graph theory, we explored and compared the functional connectivity between two finger tapping tasks of ME and MI. Our results showed that using BC, the key node for the ME task mainly focused on the supplementary motor area, while the key node for the MI task mainly located in the right premotor area. These results characterized the connectivity patterns of ME and MI and may provide new insights into the neural mechanism underlying motor execution and imagination of movements.
authors: College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Xu
authors: Paul C. Lauterbur Research Centers for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Zhang
authors: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Hui
authors: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors: Z
authors: Z
authors: Long
authors: Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The 306th Hospital of PLA, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Z
authors: Z
authors: Jin
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: yaoli0316@gmail.com.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Yao
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: betweenness centrality; functional connectivity; key nodes; motor execution; motor imagery