Laboratory for Brain Recovery and Function, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Eur J Neurosci. 2018 May;47(10):1221-1229. doi: 10.1111/ejn.13900. Epub 2018 Mar 23.
Whether or not brain activation during motor imagery (MI), the mental rehearsal of movement, is modulated by experience (i.e. skilled performance, achieved through long-term practice) remains unclear. Specifically, MI is generally associated with diffuse activation patterns that closely resemble novice physical performance, which may be attributable to a lack of experience with the task being imagined vs. being a distinguishing feature of MI. We sought to examine how experience modulates brain activity driven via MI, implementing a within- and between-group design to manipulate experience across tasks as well as expertise of the participants. Two groups of 'experts' (basketball/volleyball athletes) and 'novices' (recreational controls) underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG) while performing MI of four multi-articular tasks, selected to ensure that the degree of experience that participants had with each task varied. Source-level analysis was applied to MEG data and linear mixed effects modelling was conducted to examine task-related changes in activity. Within- and between-group comparisons were completed post hoc and difference maps were plotted. Brain activation patterns observed during MI of tasks for which participants had a low degree of experience were more widespread and bilateral (i.e. within-groups), with limited differences observed during MI of tasks for which participants had similar experience (i.e. between-groups). Thus, we show that brain activity during MI is modulated by experience; specifically, that novice performance is associated with the additional recruitment of regions across both hemispheres. Future investigations of the neural correlates of MI should consider prior experience when selecting the task to be performed.
运动想象（MI），即运动的心理演练，在多大程度上受到经验（即通过长期练习获得的熟练表现）的调节尚不清楚。具体来说，MI 通常与弥散激活模式相关，这些模式与新手的物理表现非常相似，这可能是由于缺乏对想象任务的经验，而不是 MI 的一个区别特征。我们试图研究经验如何调节通过 MI 驱动的大脑活动，实施了一个组内和组间设计，以操纵任务和参与者专业知识方面的经验。两组“专家”（篮球/排球运动员）和“新手”（娱乐对照组）在执行四项多关节任务的 MI 时接受了脑磁图（MEG），这些任务的选择确保了参与者在每项任务上的经验程度有所不同。对 MEG 数据进行了源级分析，并进行了线性混合效应建模，以检查与任务相关的活动变化。进行了组内和组间比较，并绘制了差异图。观察到参与者经验较少的任务的 MI 期间的大脑激活模式更加广泛和双侧（即组内），而参与者具有相似经验的任务的 MI 期间观察到的差异有限（即组间）。因此，我们表明 MI 期间的大脑活动受到经验的调节；具体来说，新手表现与跨两个半球的区域的额外招募有关。未来对 MI 的神经相关性的研究在选择要执行的任务时应考虑先前的经验。
