Neural Activation and Functional Connectivity during Motor Imagery of Bimanual Everyday Actions

Abstract

Bimanual actions impose intermanual coordination demands not present during unimanual actions. We investigated the functional neuroanatomical correlates of these coordination demands in motor imagery (MI) of everyday actions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For this, 17 participants imagined unimanual actions with the left and right hand as well as bimanual actions while undergoing fMRI. A univariate fMRI analysis showed no reliable cortical activations specific to bimanual MI, indicating that intermanual coordination demands in MI are not associated with increased neural processing. A functional connectivity analysis based on psychophysiological interactions (PPI), however, revealed marked increases in connectivity between parietal and premotor areas within and between hemispheres. We conclude that in MI of everyday actions intermanual coordination demands are primarily met by changes in connectivity between areas and only moderately, if at all, by changes in the amount of neural activity. These results are the first characterization of the neuroanatomical correlates of bimanual coordination demands in MI. Our findings support the assumed equivalence of overt and imagined actions and highlight the differences between uni- and bimanual actions. The findings extent our understanding of the motor system and may aid the development of clinical neurorehabilitation approaches based on mental practice.

The Neurofunctional Architecture of Motor Imagery

“…A last study by the same group of researchers confirmed these findings, and further showed that motor execution has some increased causal connections because of additional processes for the overt behavior stage (Gao et al, 2011). Taken together, these experimental studies highlight the advantages of studying functional and/or effective connectivity through fMRI to expand our understanding of the neural underpinnings of MI (see also Szameitat et al, 2012).…”

Brain and soccer: Functional patterns of brain activity during the generation of creative moves in real soccer decision‐making situations

“…The generation of obvious as compared to creative moves in real-life soccer decision-making situations revealed activations in a mainly leftlateralized network including the cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, the rolandic operculum, along with smaller activation clusters involving the left angular and postcentral gyrus, and the left pallidum. Overall, this network of brain regions supports various higher-order cognitive functions such as semantic information processing (Binder et al, 2009), visual and motor imagery (Kosslyn, Ganis, & Thompson, 2001;Szameitat, McNamara, Shen, & Sterr, 2012), likewise the processing and integration of sensorimotor and somatosensory information (Eickhoff et al, 2010). Especially the cluster involving the rolandic operculum appears to overlap with a cortical network that is thought to be implicated in self-referential processes involving self-location in space (Ventre-Dominey, 2014), by integrating visual, vestibular, and somatosensory information to "generate a multi-modal neuronal representation of subject motion and orientation in space" (Karnath, 2001, p.572; see also Eickhoff, Weiss, Amunts, Fink, & Zilles, 2006;Eickhoff et al, 2010;Lopez, Blanke, & Mast, 2012).…”

Aging effects on the resting state motor network and interlimb coordination

“…The premotor cortex is critical for rhythmical bimanual coordination (Christensen et al, 2013;Goerres et al, 1998;Hinder et al, 2012;Sadato et al, 1997;Szameitat et al, 2012), as part of a dorsal pathway that mediates sensorymotor interactions for externally guided movements (Goodale et al, 2003). In particular, age-related increased functional connectivity between the left dorsal and right ventral premotor areas reflects their key role in the present bimanual coordination network with some lateralization specificity (see Jackson and Husain, 1996).…”