Blefari Maria L, Sulzer James, Hepp-Reymond Marie-Claude, Kollias Spyros, Gassert Roger
Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich Zurich, Switzerland ; Chair in Non-Invasive Brain-Machine Interface, Center for Neuroprosthetics, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland.
Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich Zurich, Switzerland ; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2015 Feb 13;9:18. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00018. eCollection 2015.
Motor imagery (MI) has shown effectiveness in enhancing motor performance. This may be due to the common neural mechanisms underlying MI and motor execution (ME). The main region of the ME network, the primary motor cortex (M1), has been consistently linked to motor performance. However, the activation of M1 during motor imagery is controversial, which may account for inconsistent rehabilitation therapy outcomes using MI. Here, we examined the relationship between contralateral M1 (cM1) activation during MI and changes in sensorimotor performance. To aid cM1 activity modulation during MI, we used real-time fMRI neurofeedback-guided MI based on cM1 hand area blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in healthy subjects, performing kinesthetic MI of pinching. We used multiple regression analysis to examine the correlation between cM1 BOLD signal and changes in motor performance during an isometric pinching task of those subjects who were able to activate cM1 during motor imagery. Activities in premotor and parietal regions were used as covariates. We found that cM1 activity was positively correlated to improvements in accuracy as well as overall performance improvements, whereas other regions in the sensorimotor network were not. The association between cM1 activation during MI with performance changes indicates that subjects with stronger cM1 activation during MI may benefit more from MI training, with implications toward targeted neurotherapy.
运动想象（MI）已被证明在提高运动表现方面具有有效性。这可能是由于运动想象和运动执行（ME）背后存在共同的神经机制。运动执行网络的主要区域，即初级运动皮层（M1），一直与运动表现相关联。然而，运动想象期间M1的激活存在争议，这可能解释了使用运动想象的康复治疗结果不一致的原因。在这里，我们研究了运动想象期间对侧M1（cM1）激活与感觉运动表现变化之间的关系。为了在运动想象期间辅助cM1活动调制，我们在健康受试者中基于cM1手部区域的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号，使用实时功能磁共振成像神经反馈引导的运动想象，进行捏的动觉运动想象。我们使用多元回归分析来检查那些在运动想象期间能够激活cM1的受试者在等长捏任务期间cM1的BOLD信号与运动表现变化之间的相关性。将运动前区和顶叶区域的活动用作协变量。我们发现，cM1活动与准确性的提高以及整体表现的改善呈正相关，而感觉运动网络中的其他区域则不然。运动想象期间cM1激活与表现变化之间的关联表明，在运动想象期间cM1激活较强的受试者可能从运动想象训练中获益更多，这对靶向神经治疗具有启示意义。
