Cortical activation during overt and covert movement in patients with low functioning hemiplegia and healthy volunteers

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Cortical activation during overt and covert movement in patients with low functioning hemiplegia and healthy volunteers Annette Sterr1*, Adam Mcnamara1, Shan Shen2 and Andre J. Szameitat3 1 University of Surrey, United Kingdom 2 University of Reading, United Kingdom 3 University of Munich, Germany Chronic deficits of the upper limb represent a common residual problem following stroke. While practice-based approaches have greatly improved effective treatment of motor function in patients with mild to medium hemiplegia, little help is available for patients with minimal motor ability. This is because most treatments rely on overt movement. However, it is difficult to study the motor system in the absence of the ability to move. There is good evidence from MRI and EEG studies that the motor system shares many commonalities between overt motor execution (ME) and the covert movement modalities, motor imagery (MI), motor observation (MO) and passive movement (PM). These covert movement modalities may provide new treatment avenues for low-functioning (LF) patients but more knowledge on the neural mechanisms is needed. The present study aimed to characterise the neural activation patterns obtained by MI, MO, PM and ME in controls (n = 21) and explore their suitability in LF patients (n = 5) using 3T fMRI. In controls the motor system activation in ME was comparable to PM, MI and MO, except for the minimal activation in the primary motor cortex. In patients, the attempted ME condition was most closely mirrored by motor imagery, while PM was associated with a strong deactivation of posterior brain regions. Patients further showed differential effects for the ipsi- and contralesional hemisphere for MI, MO and PM relative to ME. Together, our findings suggest that MI may be the most suitable form of motor system activation for a possible treatment of LF patients. Our data further highlight the need to better understand the activations induced in the ipsi- and contralesional hemisphere and their potential implications for brain plasticity processes and treatment efficacy. Funding: Medical Research Council, UK. Keywords: fMRI, Neuropsychiatry Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neuropsychiatric Applications Citation: Sterr A, Mcnamara A, Shen S and Szameitat AJ (2011). Cortical activation during overt and covert movement in patients with low functioning hemiplegia and healthy volunteers. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00227 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Annette Sterr, University of Surrey, Surrey, United Kingdom, sterr_icon@hotmail.co.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Annette Sterr Adam Mcnamara Shan Shen Andre J Szameitat Google Annette Sterr Adam Mcnamara Shan Shen Andre J Szameitat Google Scholar Annette Sterr Adam Mcnamara Shan Shen Andre J Szameitat PubMed Annette Sterr Adam Mcnamara Shan Shen Andre J Szameitat Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.