Abstract
We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate short-term neural effects of a brief sensorimotor intervention adapted from the Feldenkrais method, a movement-based learning method. Twenty-one participants (10 men, 19–30 years) took part in the study. Participants were in a supine position in the scanner with extended legs while an experienced Feldenkrais practitioner used a planar board to touch and apply minimal force to different parts of the sole and toes of their left foot under two experimental conditions. In the local condition, the practitioner explored movement within foot and ankle. In the global condition, the practitioner focused on the connection and support from the foot to the rest of the body. Before (baseline) and after each intervention (post-local, post-global), we measured brain activity during intermittent pushing/releasing with the left leg and during resting state. Independent localizer tasks were used to identify regions of interest (ROI). Brain activity during left-foot pushing did not significantly differ between conditions in sensorimotor areas. Resting state activity (regional homogeneity, ReHo) increased from baseline to post-local in medial right motor cortex, and from baseline to post-global in the left supplementary/cingulate motor area. Contrasting post-global to post-local showed higher ReHo in right lateral motor cortex. ROI analyses showed significant increases in ReHo in pushing-related areas from baseline to both post-local and post-global, and this increase tended to be more pronounced post-local. The results of this exploratory study show that a short, non-intrusive sensorimotor intervention can have short-term effects on spontaneous cortical activity in functionally related brain regions. Increased resting state activity in higher-order motor areas supports the hypothesis that the global intervention engages action-related neural processes.
Highlights
The Feldenkrais method is a movement-based learning method aimed at improving organization of the body in action (Feldenkrais, 1947; Buchanan, 2012)
Comparing left-push to rest (Figure 3A), we found a large significant cluster in medial sensorimotor cortex with peak activation in right medial motor cortex (p < 0.05, familiy-wise error correction (FWE); 15, −34, 64; 543 voxels; Z = 6.37) as well as more lateral clusters
We set out to study potential changes in neural activity during a gentle foot-pushing task and resting state, induced by two forms of the artificial floor intervention: the local manipulation, in which the practitioner focuses on mobility within the foot, and the global manipulation, in which the practitioner explores the connection from the foot to the rest of the body, focusing on the function of the foot for body support
Summary
The Feldenkrais method is a movement-based learning method aimed at improving organization of the body in action (Feldenkrais, 1947; Buchanan, 2012). One basic assumption of this approach is that movement variation, guided somatosensory attention, and hands-on manipulation can provide meaningful information to the nervous system by clarifying functional relationships along the body and with the environment (e.g., connection between body parts, support from the floor, movement distribution, orientation in space). In this explorative study, we investigate the role of the practitioner’s focus on functional relationships between body parts in one particular Feldenkrais technique applied to the foot, the “artificial floor” (e.g., Feldenkrais, 1981), by assessing the neural effects of two subtly different forms of the manipulation. We hypothesized that the local manipulation would lead to increased activity in primary sensorimotor areas representing the stimulated foot, while the global manipulation would engage more widespread and higher-level motor areas
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