Characterization of kinesthetic motor imagery compared with visual motor imageries

Abstract

Motor imagery (MI) is the only way for disabled subjects to robustly use a robot arm with a brain-machine interface. There are two main types of MI. Kinesthetic motor imagery (KMI) is proprioceptive (OR somato-) sensory imagination and Visual motor imagery (VMI) represents a visualization of the corresponding movement incorporating the visual network. Because these imagery tactics may use different networks, we hypothesized that the connectivity measures could characterize the two imageries better than the local activity. Electroencephalography data were recorded. Subjects performed different conditions, including motor execution (ME), KMI, VMI, and visual observation (VO). We tried to classify the KMI and VMI by conventional power analysis and by the connectivity measures. The mean accuracies of the classification of the KMI and VMI were 98.5% and 99.29% by connectivity measures (alpha and beta, respectively), which were higher than those by the normalized power (p < 0.01, Wilcoxon paired rank test). Additionally, the connectivity patterns were correlated between the ME-KMI and between the VO-VMI. The degree centrality (DC) was significantly higher in the left-S1 at the alpha-band in the KMI than in the VMI. The MI could be well classified because the KMI recruits a similar network to the ME. These findings could contribute to MI training methods.

Differential Influence of the Dorsal Premotor and Primary Somatosensory Cortex on Corticospinal Excitability during Kinesthetic and Visual Motor Imagery: A Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

“…In a similar vein, that CSE facilitation during dynamic kMI is affected by S1 rTMS is in keeping with neuroimaging studies showing the involvement of S1 activation, in particular during kMI [25,29,30]. Remarkably, our findings support the notion that connectivity between S1 and M1 during MI may be inhibitory [24], since we found that transient suppression of S1 boosts the facilitation of CSE during kMI.…”

“…Our finding of decreased muscle-specific facilitation of CSE during kMI following rTMS over the dPMC falls in line with previous evidence of strong activity of this area during kMI [25,26,29,30]. The dPMC activation during kMI was linked to an increase in the MEP amplitude of hand muscles following spTMS over the relative OSP [69].…”

“…These studies have shown PMC activation either during both kMI and vMI [25,26] or only during vMI but not kMI [27], whereas meta-analytic evidence shows a substantial overlap between the two modalities but more extensive recruitment of fronto-parietal sensorimotor circuits in the case of kMI [28]. This picture is further complicated by evidence suggesting that connectivity could characterize the functional role of brain activations to distinct imagery modalities better than local activity [30]. Brain co-activations across tasks, indeed, may reflect different excitatory or inhibitory influences on common areas.…”

Decoding Motor Imagery of three-dimensional Random Movements Using Electrocorticographic Signals in Acute Training Setting

“…We designed a task paradigm similar to that in our previous paper 32 . We used a block design because movement imagery is di cult without any preceding practical task 21 .…”

Effect of a Brain–Computer Interface Based on Pedaling Motor Imagery on Cortical Excitability and Connectivity

“…At this stage, the participant further received passive movements using the pedal to feel the kinesthetic experience, to afterward imagine the same kinesthetic experience [44,45]. Kinesthetic motor imagery is described as the ability to imagine the execution of a movement by having an impression of muscle contraction and sensation during a real movement [46,47]. Simultaneously, the skin preparation and placement of EEG electrodes were done while the participant was instructed to continue training the kinesthetic motor imagery, following the visual cues (see Figure 1) provided by the BCI.…”