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The neural substrates of impaired finger tapping regularity after stroke
- Source :
- NeuroImage. 50:1-6
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2010.
-
Abstract
- Not only finger tapping speed, but also tapping regularity can be impaired after stroke, contributing to reduced dexterity. The neural substrates of impaired tapping regularity after stroke are unknown. Previous work suggests damage to the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and prefrontal cortex (PFCx) affects externally-cued hand movement. We tested the hypothesis that these two areas are involved in impaired post-stroke tapping regularity. In 19 right-handed patients (15 men/4 women; age 45-80 years; purely subcortical in 16) partially to fully recovered from hemiparetic stroke, tri-axial accelerometric quantitative assessment of tapping regularity and BOLD fMRI were obtained during fixed-rate auditory-cued index-thumb tapping, in a single session 10-230 days after stroke. A strong random-effect correlation between tapping regularity index and fMRI signal was found in contralesional PMd such that the worse the regularity the stronger the activation. A significant correlation in the opposite direction was also present within contralesional PFCx. Both correlations were maintained if maximal index tapping speed, degree of paresis and time since stroke were added as potential confounds. Thus, the contralesional PMd and PFCx appear to be involved in the impaired ability of stroke patients to fingertap in pace with external cues. The findings for PMd are consistent with repetitive TMS investigations in stroke suggesting a role for this area in affected-hand movement timing. The inverse relationship with tapping regularity observed for the PFCx and the PMd suggests these two anatomically-connected areas negatively co-operate. These findings have implications for understanding the disruption and reorganization of the motor systems after stroke.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Time Factors
Cognitive Neuroscience
Prefrontal Cortex
Motor Activity
Neuropsychological Tests
Brain mapping
Fingers
Premotor cortex
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Motor system
medicine
Humans
Prefrontal cortex
Stroke
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Brain Mapping
Brain
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Frontal Lobe
Oxygen
Paresis
medicine.anatomical_structure
Thumb
Neurology
Frontal lobe
Finger tapping
Tapping
Female
Psychology
Neuroscience
Psychomotor Performance
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10538119
- Volume :
- 50
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- NeuroImage
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b38cfe60ac26b77d7a0464da64ed8001