Department of Neurology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Brain Struct Funct. 2013 Jan;218(1):255-67. doi: 10.1007/s00429-012-0399-0. Epub 2012 Feb 25.
Functional neuroimaging studies on the recall or imagination of a distinctive task in the motor network or of sensations in sensory systems (visual, acoustic, nociceptive, gustatory, and olfactory) demonstrated that the respective primary cortex is often involved in the mental imagery process. Our aim was to examine this phenomenon in the vestibular system using fMRI. Sixteen healthy subjects were asked to remember the feeling of a rotatory chair procedure in contrast to an identical situation at rest. Shortly afterwards they were asked to recall the vestibular experience in a 1.5-T scanner. The resulting activations were then compared with the responses of a galvanic vestibular control experiment and a rest condition. The vestibular recall showed significant bihemispheric activations in the inferior frontal gyri, the anterior operculum, the middle cingulate, the putamen, the globus pallidus, the premotor motor cortex, and the anterior insula. We found activations in regions known to play a role in spatial referencing, motor programs, and attention in the recall of vestibular sensations. But important known relay stations for the cortical processing of vestibular information showed neither relevant activations nor deactivations.
功能神经影像学研究表明，在运动网络中回忆或想象一项独特任务，或在感觉系统（视觉、听觉、痛觉、味觉和嗅觉）中回忆感觉时，相应的初级皮层通常参与了心理意象过程。我们的目的是使用 fMRI 研究前庭系统中的这一现象。我们要求 16 名健康受试者回忆旋转椅程序的感觉，与静息时的相同情况形成对比。随后，他们被要求在 1.5T 扫描仪中回忆前庭体验。然后将得到的激活与前庭电刺激控制实验和静息状态的反应进行比较。前庭回忆在额下回、前脑岛、中扣带、壳核、苍白球、运动前运动皮层和前岛叶中引起显著的双侧激活。我们发现，在回忆前庭感觉时，在已知参与空间参照、运动程序和注意力的区域中存在激活。但是，前庭信息皮质处理的重要已知中继站既没有表现出相关的激活，也没有表现出失活。
