Novel imaging techniques to study the functional organization of the human brain

Clinical and Translational Neuroscience

Reviews/Mini-Reviews

Renaud Marquis¹  Maya Jastrzębowska²  Bogdan Draganski³ 

[1] LREN – Department of Clinical Neurosciences, CHUV, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;LREN – Department of Clinical Neurosciences, CHUV, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;LREN – Department of Clinical Neurosciences, CHUV, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany;

关键词: FMRI;    motor somatotopy;    cerebral cortex;    segregation;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2514183X17714104

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

Despite more than a century of investigation into the cortical organization of motor function, the existence of motor somatotopy is still debated. We review functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies examining motor somatotopy in the cerebral cortex. In spite of a substantial overlap of representations corresponding to different body parts, especially in non-primary motor cortices, geographic approaches are capable of revealing somatotopic ordering. From the iconic homunculus in the contralateral primary cortex to the subtleties of ipsilateral somatotopy and its relations with lateralization, we outline potential reasons for the lack of segregation between motor representations. Among these are the difficulties in distinguishing activity that arises from multiple muscular effectors, the need for flexible motor control and coordination of complex movements through functional integration and artefacts in fMRI. Methodological advances with regard to the optimization of experimental design and fMRI acquisition protocols as well as improvements in spatial registration of images and indices aiming at the quantification of the degree of segregation between different functional representations are inspected. Additionally, we give some hints as to how the functional organization of motor function might be related to various anatomical landmarks in brain morphometry.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© The Author(s) 2017

【 图 表 】

Figure 7.