Comparison of brain activity between motor imagery and mental rotation of the hand tasks: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Hiroyuki Hamada,Sudesna Chakraborty,Chihiro Sutoh,Takayuki Obata,Yoshiyuki Hirano,Hiroshi Ito,Eiji Shimizu,Hiroshi Tsuji,Daisuke Matsuzawa

doi:10.1007/s11682-017-9821-9

Abstract

Motor imagery (MI) has been considered effective in learning and practicing movements in many fields. However, when evaluating the effectiveness of this technique, the examiner has no way of assessing the participant’s motor imagery process. As an alternative, we have been exploring a mental body-part rotation task, in which the examiner can estimate the participant’s motivation and ability to sustain attention through the scored results. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possible application of a mental rotation (MRot) task and used fMRI to compare the brain activity during the MRot task with that during an MI task in healthy volunteers. Increased blood oxygenation level-dependent signals were observed bilaterally in the premotor areas and supplementary motor area during performance of both MI and MRot tasks. Our findings suggest that MRot could be an alternative to MI.

Highlights

In recent years, motor imagery (MI) tasks have been used in learning and practicing movements in many fields such as sports, dance, music and rehabilitation (Schack et al 2014; Schuster et al 2011; Zimmermann-Schlatter et al 2008)
Studies on mental rotation tasks involving body parts have shown activation of the movement-related region (Kosslyn et al 1998; de Lange et al 2006; Zapparoli et al 2014; Perruchoud et al 2016), and these domains overlap with those revealed by neuroimaging research on Motor imagery (MI) (Vingerhoets et al 2002; Wraga et al 2003; Zacks 2008; Hetu et al 2013), which suggests that in performing mental rotation, subjects at least partly use the same strategy as when performing MI
We evaluated the similarities and the differences between an MI task and a hand mental rotation task from the viewpoint of brain activity observed by fMRI with the same visual images in the same individuals

Summary

Introduction

Motor imagery (MI) tasks have been used in learning and practicing movements in many fields such as sports, dance, music and rehabilitation (Schack et al 2014; Schuster et al 2011; Zimmermann-Schlatter et al 2008). Brain Imaging and Behavior (2018) 12:1596–1606 position affected the performance of the mental rotation of body parts. Studies on mental rotation tasks involving body parts have shown activation of the movement-related region (premotor area and supplementary motor area) (Kosslyn et al 1998; de Lange et al 2006; Zapparoli et al 2014; Perruchoud et al 2016), and these domains overlap with those revealed by neuroimaging research on MI (Vingerhoets et al 2002; Wraga et al 2003; Zacks 2008; Hetu et al 2013), which suggests that in performing mental rotation, subjects at least partly use the same strategy as when performing MI. Direct comparisons between the two types of tasks from the very same images can be obtained only from a behavioral study measuring differences in reaction times (Parsons 1994), but such neuroimaging studies have not been performed

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