Cortical involvement in a gait-related imagery task: Comparison between Parkinson’s disease and normal aging

Brain activity during walking: A systematic review

“…Higher activations A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 12 were primarily observed in cortical regions including MT/V5 (Wai et al, 2012;Zwergal et al, 2012) …”

“…Brain areas that show higher activation when crossing obstacles are SMA (Malouin et al, 2003;Wai et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2009), visual regions (Malouin et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2009), parietal lobule (Malouin et al, 2003;Wai et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2009) and M1 (Wai et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2009). Additionally, parahippocampal gyrus (Malouin et al, 2003), cingulate cortex, insula and putamen ) showed higher activations.…”

“…Older people obtain higher activations in the cortex compared to younger adults (see Table 4) during imagery of gait (Allali et al, 2013;Wai et al, 2012;Zwergal et al, 2012). Higher activations A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 12 were primarily observed in cortical regions including MT/V5 (Wai et al, 2012;Zwergal et al, 2012) …”

Fall risk is associated with amplified functional connectivity of the central executive network in patients with Parkinson’s disease

“…The CEN is involved in planning [8], obstacle negotiation, attention and scanning [33]. This network includes the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and parietal regions that are related to attention [15,24,29] and dual tasking [11].…”

Age-related changes in the bimanual advantage and in brain oscillatory activity during tapping movements suggest a decline in processing sensory reafference

“…Interestingly, in the same study, the left and right superior parietal lobules (BA 5) were not activated during visual imagery, but they were during kinesthetic imagery of the same sequence. In addition, when older participants were required to perform the imagery task of stepping over an obstacle, the fMRI results emphasized an extensive network of cortical areas involved in visuomotor transformation, including visual association areas (BA 19), that were activated more in older than in younger participants (Wai et al 2012). A recent study showed in a deafferented patient a decrease in the quality of sensory reafference and an increased in the quality of visual imagery during a mental rotation task (ter Horst et al 2012).…”