Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.

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 participan...

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Main Authors: André J Szameitat, Adam McNamara, Shan Shen, Annette Sterr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0038506&type=printable
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author André J Szameitat
Adam McNamara
Shan Shen
Annette Sterr
author_facet André J Szameitat
Adam McNamara
Shan Shen
Annette Sterr
author_sort André J Szameitat
collection DOAJ
description 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.
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spelling doaj-art-7912619d840d43beb7cd059e8a9f92472025-08-20T02:30:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032012-01-0176e3850610.1371/journal.pone.0038506Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.André J SzameitatAdam McNamaraShan ShenAnnette SterrBimanual 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.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0038506&type=printable
spellingShingle André J Szameitat
Adam McNamara
Shan Shen
Annette Sterr
Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
PLoS ONE
title Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
title_full Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
title_fullStr Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
title_full_unstemmed Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
title_short Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions.
title_sort neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0038506&type=printable
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