Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on May 20, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(2):272-277; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm052
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/2/272    most recent
bhm052v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mercier, C.
Right arrow Articles by Sirigu, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mercier, C.
Right arrow Articles by Sirigu, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Vision without Proprioception Modulates Cortico-spinal Excitability during Hand Motor Imagery

C. Mercier1,3, A. Aballea1, C. D. Vargas1, J. Paillard2 and A. Sirigu1

1 Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive CNRS, 67 Blvd. Pinel, 69675 Bron, France, 2 Late of Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des mouvements, Marseille, France, 3 Present address: Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et en intégration sociale, 525 Blvd Hamel, Québec (QC) G1M 2S8, Canada

Address correspondence to: Angela Sirigu, Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, CNRS, 67, Blvd. Pinel, 69675 Bron, France. Email: sirigu{at}isc.cnrs.fr.

Several studies have shown a cortico-spinal facilitation during motor imagery. This facilitation effect is weaker when the actual hand posture is incompatible with the imagined movement. To determine whether the source of this interference effect arises from online proprioceptive information, we examined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced motor-evoked potentials during motor imagery in the deafferented subject G.L. The patient and 7 control subjects were asked to close their eyes and imagine joining the tips of the thumb and the little finger while maintaining a hand posture compatible or incompatible with the imagined movement. Contrary to control subjects' performance, G.L.'s results show that the facilitation observed during motor imagery was independent of the hand posture. To examine how vision of the hand interacts with the imagery process, G.L. and control subjects performed the same task with the eyes open. Like control subjects, when G.L. looked at her hand, a greater facilitation was observed when her hand posture was compatible with the imagined movement than when it was incompatible. These results suggest that in the absence of proprioception, vision may facilitate or inhibit motor representations and support the idea that limb position in the brain is organized around multisensory representations.

Key Words: deafferentation • motor imagery • multisensory representation • transcranial magnetic stimulation


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
N. Hagura, Y. Oouchida, Y. Aramaki, T. Okada, M. Matsumura, N. Sadato, and E. Naito
Visuokinesthetic Perception of Hand Movement Is Mediated by Cerebro-Cerebellar Interaction between the Left Cerebellum and Right Parietal Cortex
Cereb Cortex, May 2, 2008; (2008) bhn068v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.