Motor imagery (M.I.) is a mental state in which real movements are evoked without overt actions. There is some behavioural evidence that M.I. declines with aging. The neurofunctional correlates of these changes have been investigated only in two studies, but none of the these studies has measured explicit correlations between behavioural variables and the brain response, nor the correlation of M.I. and M.E. of the same acts in aging. In this paper, we report on a behavioural and fMRI experiment that aimed to address this issue. Twenty-four young subjects (27±5.6 years) and twenty-four elderly subjects (60±4.6 years) performed two block-design fMRI tasks requiring actual movement (motor execution, M.E.) or the mental rehearsal (motor imagery, M.I.) of finger movements. Participants also underwent a behavioural mental chronometry test in which the temporal correlations between M.I. and M.E. were measured. We found significant neurofunctional and behavioural differences between the elderly subjects and the young subjects during the M.E. and the M.I. task: for the motor execution task, the elderly subjects showed increased activation in frontal and prefrontal (pre-SMA) cortices as if M.E. had become more cognitively demanding; during the M.I. task the elderly over-recruited occipito-temporo-parietal areas, suggesting that they may also use a visual imagery strategy. We also found between-group behavioural differences in the mental chronometry task: M.I. and M.E. were highly correlated in the young participants but not in the elderly participants. The temporal discrepancy between M.I. and M.E. in the elderly subjects correlated with the brain regions that showed increased activation in the occipital lobe in the fMRI. The same index was correlated with the premotor regions in the younger subjects. These observations show that healthy elderly individuals have decreased or qualitatively different M.I. compared to younger subjects.
Mental Images Across the Adult Lifespan: A behavioural and fMRI investigation of motor execution and motor imagery
BERLINGERI, MANUELA;
2012
Abstract
Motor imagery (M.I.) is a mental state in which real movements are evoked without overt actions. There is some behavioural evidence that M.I. declines with aging. The neurofunctional correlates of these changes have been investigated only in two studies, but none of the these studies has measured explicit correlations between behavioural variables and the brain response, nor the correlation of M.I. and M.E. of the same acts in aging. In this paper, we report on a behavioural and fMRI experiment that aimed to address this issue. Twenty-four young subjects (27±5.6 years) and twenty-four elderly subjects (60±4.6 years) performed two block-design fMRI tasks requiring actual movement (motor execution, M.E.) or the mental rehearsal (motor imagery, M.I.) of finger movements. Participants also underwent a behavioural mental chronometry test in which the temporal correlations between M.I. and M.E. were measured. We found significant neurofunctional and behavioural differences between the elderly subjects and the young subjects during the M.E. and the M.I. task: for the motor execution task, the elderly subjects showed increased activation in frontal and prefrontal (pre-SMA) cortices as if M.E. had become more cognitively demanding; during the M.I. task the elderly over-recruited occipito-temporo-parietal areas, suggesting that they may also use a visual imagery strategy. We also found between-group behavioural differences in the mental chronometry task: M.I. and M.E. were highly correlated in the young participants but not in the elderly participants. The temporal discrepancy between M.I. and M.E. in the elderly subjects correlated with the brain regions that showed increased activation in the occipital lobe in the fMRI. The same index was correlated with the premotor regions in the younger subjects. These observations show that healthy elderly individuals have decreased or qualitatively different M.I. compared to younger subjects.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
