Increased motor cortex excitability during motor imagery in brain-computer interface trained subjects

Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience

Olesya eMokienko¹  Alexander eChervyakov²  Sofia eKulikova²  Liudmila eChernikova²  Mikhail ePiradov²  Alexander eFrolov³  Pavel eBobrov³ 

[1] Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of RAS;Research center of neurology Russian academy of medical science;Technical University of Ostrava;

关键词: Neurorehabilitation;    functional MRI;    Brain-computer interface;    Motor Imagery;    navigated TMS;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fncom.2013.00168

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Motor imagery (MI) is the mental performance of movement without muscle activity. It is generally accepted that MI and motor performance have similar physiological mechanisms.Purpose: To investigate the activity and excitability of cortical motor areas during MI in subjects who were previously trained with an MI-based brain-computer interface (BCI).Subjects and methods: Eleven healthy volunteers without neurological impairments (mean age, 36 years; range: 24–68 years) were either trained with an MI-based BCI (BCI-trained, n = 5) or received no BCI training (n = 6, controls). Subjects imagined grasping in a blocked paradigm task with alternating rest and task periods. For evaluating the activity and excitability of cortical motor areas we used functional MRI and navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS).Results: fMRI revealed activation in Brodmann areas 3 and 6, the cerebellum, and the thalamus during MI in all subjects. The primary motor cortex was activated only in BCI-trained subjects. The associative zones of activation were larger in non-trained subjects. During MI, motor evoked potentials recorded from two of the three targeted muscles were significantly higher only in BCI-trained subjects. The motor threshold decreased (median = 17%) during MI, which was also observed only in BCI-trained subjects.Conclusion: Previous BCI training increased motor cortex excitability during MI. These data may help to improve BCI applications, including rehabilitation of patients with cerebral palsy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown