The role of the frontal aslant tract and premotor connections in visually guided hand movements.
Functional neuroimaging and brain lesion studies demonstrate that secondary motor areas of the frontal lobe play a crucial role in the cortical control of hand movements. However, no study so far has examined frontal white matter connections of the secondary motor network, namely the frontal aslant tract, connecting the supplementary motor complex and the posterior inferior frontal regions, and the U-shaped dorsal and ventral premotor fibers running through the middle frontal gyrus. The aim of the current study is to explore the involvement of the short frontal lobe connections in reaching and reach-to-grasp movements in 32 right-handed healthy subjects by correlating tractography data based on spherical deconvolution approach with kinematical data. We showed that individual differences in the microstructure of the bilateral frontal aslant tract, bilateral ventral and left dorsal premotor tracts were associated with kinematic features of hand actions. Furthermore, bilateral ventral premotor connections were also involved in the closing grip phase necessary for determining efficient and stable grasping of the target object. This work suggests for the first time that hand kinematics and visuomotor processing are associated with the anatomy of the short frontal lobe connections.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: sanja.budisavljevic@gmail.com.
Sanja
S
Budisavljevic
Natbrainlab, Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.
Flavio
F
Dell'Acqua
Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy.
Vera
V
Djordjilovic
Department of Medicine, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Diego
D
Miotto
Department of Medicine, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Raffaella
R
Motta
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy; Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 00165 Roma, Italy.
Umberto
U
Castiello
D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
Diffusion imaging tractography; Frontal aslant tract; Grasping; Premotor connections; Reaching; Visuomotor processing