Abstract
Motor imagery (MI), a covert cognitive process where an action is mentally simulated but not actually performed, could be used as an effective neurorehabilitation tool for motor function improvement or recovery. Recent approaches employing brain–computer/brain–machine interfaces to provide online feedback of the MI during rehabilitation training have promising rehabilitation outcomes. In this study, we examined whether participants could volitionally recall MI-related brain activation patterns when guided using neurofeedback (NF) during training. The participants’ performance was compared to that without NF. We hypothesized that participants would be able to consistently generate the relevant activation pattern associated with the MI task during training with NF compared to that without NF. To assess activation consistency, we used the performance of classifiers trained to discriminate MI-related brain activation patterns. Our results showed significantly higher predictive values of MI-related activation patterns during training with NF. Additionally, this improvement in the classification performance tends to be associated with the activation of middle temporal gyrus/inferior occipital gyrus, a region associated with visual motion processing, suggesting the importance of performance monitoring during MI task training. Taken together, these findings suggest that the efficacy of MI training, in terms of generating consistent brain activation patterns relevant to the task, can be enhanced by using NF as a mechanism to enable participants to volitionally recall task-related brain activation patterns.
Highlights
A growing number of neuroimaging studies have shown that brain regions activated during an overt motor task are activated during motor imagery (MI), a covert cognitive process where an individual mentally simulates an action but without any body movement (Grèzes and Decety, 2000; Hétu et al, 2013)
right hand gripping and opening (RGO) showed activations in bilateral supplementary motor cortex (SMC) extending toward cingulate gyrus (CgG), bilateral precentral gyrus (PrG) extending toward inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)/Brodmann area (BA) 44 and insula/BA13, bilateral putamen, bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), bilateral cerebellum, right thalamus/caudate, and left middle frontal gyrus (MFG)
We have demonstrated the advantages of using NF during MI task training using a BMI system that provided a form of visual representation of the MI task and acted as visual feedback
Summary
A growing number of neuroimaging studies have shown that brain regions activated during an overt motor task are activated during motor imagery (MI), a covert cognitive process where an individual mentally simulates an action but without any body movement (Grèzes and Decety, 2000; Hétu et al, 2013). Aside from activating similar cortical areas, overt movement and MI have been shown to share cortical networks, networks specific to each task were reported (Sharma and Baron, 2013). These findings are aptly summed up by the mental simulation hypothesis (Jeannerod, 2001; O’Shea and Moran, 2017) which states that overt movement and MI are essentially based on the same processes. The notion that mental practice via MI could trigger activation in relevant motor areas raises the potential of MI as an effective neurorehabilitation tool to improve motor functions. The efficacy of MI training for neurorehabilitation still remains unclear
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