Brain activation profiles during kinesthetic and visual imagery: An fMRI study.
The aim of this study was to identify brain regions involved in motor imagery and differentiate two alternative strategies in its implementation: imagining a motor act using kinesthetic or visual imagery. Fourteen adults were precisely instructed and trained on how to imagine themselves or others perform a movement sequence, with the aim of promoting kinesthetic and visual imagery, respectively, in the context of an fMRI experiment using block design. We found that neither modality of motor imagery elicits activation of the primary motor cortex and that each of the two modalities involves activation of the premotor area which is also activated during action execution and action observation conditions, as well as of the supplementary motor area. Interestingly, the visual and the posterior cingulate cortices show reduced BOLD signal during both imagery conditions. Our results indicate that the networks of regions activated in kinesthetic and visual imagery of motor sequences show a substantial, while not complete overlap, and that the two forms of motor imagery lead to a differential suppression of visual areas.
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Electronic address: m.kilintari@ucl.ac.uk.
Marina
M
Kilintari
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA. Electronic address: snaraya2@uthsc.edu.
Shalini
S
Narayana
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA. Electronic address: ababajan@uthsc.edu.
Abbas
A
Babajani-Feremi
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, TN 38103, USA. Electronic address: rrezaie@uthsc.edu.
Roozbeh
R
Rezaie
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38105, USA. Electronic address: apapanic@uthsc.edu.
Andrew C
AC
Papanicolaou
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Embodied cognition; Kinesthetic imagery; Motor imagery; Visual imagery; fMRI