Abstract 2806: Does Motor Cortex Activity Predict Motor Recovery? An fMRI Study of Subacute Lacunar Stroke

Stroke ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Assia Jaillard ◽  
Chantal Delon martin ◽  
Leeanne Carey ◽  
Laurent Lalamalle ◽  
Marc J Hommel ◽  
...  

Background: While primary motor cortex (M1) has been demonstrated to be crucial for motor recovery in a recent meta-analysis including fMRI and TMS studies, other functional neuroimaging studies have found that activity in a broader sensorimotor cortical network correlate with motor recovery. The heterogeneity of stroke lesions and the small sample size characterizing many studies could account for these discrepancies. Hypothesis : The strength of task-related activity in primary motor cortex predicts motor recovery in a clinically homogenous population of acute lacunar stroke patients. Methods: We used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms of stroke recovery. We studied 18 stroke patient (4 females, 14 males) after their first single lacunar stroke (7 right , 11 left hemisphere). The lesions caused pure hemiparesia one week after stroke onset (mean 7.2 days; range 2 -15). Lesions were limited to the deep territory of the anterior choroid artery, involving the corticospinal tract at the level of the internal capsule or the corona radiata ( Figure 1 ). Patients were matched to 18 healthy controls for age and sex. Motor impairment was assessed using the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS), the Fugl-Meyer Scale (FMS), Finger Tapping Score (FTS), Purdue Pegboard and simple reaction times 7 days and 6 months after stroke. At 6 months, a global motor recovery score was computed using the FMS and the FTS to assess motor recovery. Functional MRI scans were obtained using a self-paced finger tapping (FT) task implemented as a block design alternating right FT, left FT and rest. Data were processed using SPM8. In the first level analysis “FT minus fixation” contrasts were computed for the impaired hand. At the second level, multiple regression was used to assess the effect of the motor recovery score on the FT-related motor activity (threshold p<0.05 FWE; extent threshold k=5). Age and FT rate recorded during the experiment were included as covariates in the second level model. Results: As a group, the patients showed good recovery at 6 months. Both patients and controls exhibited a typical pattern of FT task-related activity. Activity in primary motor cortex predicted motor recovery at 6 months, after adjustment for age and FT rate. MNI coordinates = [-34,-14,48] See Figure 1 . Conclusions: Primary motor cortex activity, measured soon after stroke onset, predicts motor recovery assessed at 6 months post-stroke. fMRI measurements made in the early phase of stroke recovery could be useful to derive prognostic biomarkers in both clinical practice and clinical trials investigating novel treatments, such as stem cell administration.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (S1) ◽  
pp. 17-17
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Humphries ◽  
David T. Bundy ◽  
Eric C. Leuthardt ◽  
Thy N. Huskey

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The objective of this study is to determine the degree to which the use of a contralesionally-controlled brain-computer interface for stroke rehabilitation drives change in interhemispheric motor cortical activity. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Ten chronic stroke patients were trained in the use of a brain-computer interface device for stroke recovery. Patients perform motor imagery to control the opening and closing of a motorized hand orthosis. This device was sent home with patients for 12 weeks, and patients were asked to use the device 1 hour per day, 5 days per week. The Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) was performed at 2-week intervals to assess motor function improvement. Before the active motor imagery task, patients were asked to quietly rest for 90 seconds before the task to calibrate recording equipment. EEG signals were acquired from 2 electrodes—one each centered over left and right primary motor cortex. Signals were preprocessed with a 60 Hz notch filter for environmental noise and referenced to the common average. Power envelopes for 1 Hz frequency bands (1–30 Hz) were calculated through Gabor wavelet convolution. Correlations between electrodes were then calculated for each frequency envelope on the first and last 5 runs, thus generating one correlation value per subject, per run. The chosen runs approximately correspond to the first and last week of device usage. These correlations were Fisher Z-transformed for comparison. The first and last 5 run correlations were averaged separately to estimate baseline and final correlation values. A difference was then calculated between these averages to determine correlation change for each frequency. The relationship between beta-band correlation changes (13–30 Hz) and the change in ARAT score was determined by calculating a Pearson correlation. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Beta-band inter-electrode correlations tended to decrease more in patients achieving greater motor recovery (Pearson’s r=−0.68, p=0.031). A similar but less dramatic effect was observed with alpha-band (8–12 Hz) correlation changes (Pearson’s r=−0.42, p=0.22). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The negative correlation between inter-electrode power envelope correlations in the beta frequency band and motor recovery indicates that activity in the motor cortex on each hemisphere may become more independent during recovery. The role of the unaffected hemisphere in stroke recovery is currently under debate; there is conflicting evidence regarding whether it supports or inhibits the lesioned hemisphere. These findings may support the notion of interhemispheric inhibition, as we observe less in common between activity in the 2 hemispheres in patients successfully achieving recovery. Future neuroimaging studies with greater spatial resolution than available with EEG will shed further light on changes in interhemispheric communication that occur during stroke rehabilitation.


1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 1516-1530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth E. Martin ◽  
Gregory M. Murray ◽  
Pentti Kemppainen ◽  
Yuji Masuda ◽  
Barry J. Sessle

Martin, Ruth E., Gregory M. Murray, Pentti Kemppainen, Yuji Masuda, and Barry J. Sessle. Functional properties of neurons in the primate tongue primary motor cortex during swallowing. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 1516–1530, 1997. Recent studies conducted in our laboratory have suggested that the tongue primary motor cortex (i.e., tongue-MI) plays a critical role in the control of voluntary tongue movements in the primate. However, the possible involvement of tongue-MI in semiautomatic tongue movements, such as those in swallowing, remains unkown. Therefore the present study was undertakein in attempts to address whether tongue-MI plays a role in the semiautomatic tongue movements produced during swallowing. Extracellular single neuron recordings were obtained from tongue-MI, defined by intracortical microstimulation (ICMS), in two awake monkeys as they performed three types of swallowing (swallowing of a juice reward after successful tongue task performance, nontask-related swallowing of a liquid bolus, and nontask-related swallowing of a solid bolus) as well as a trained tongue-protrusion task. Electromyographic activity was recorded simultaneously from various orofacial and laryngeal muscles. In addition, the afferent input to each tongue-MI neuron and ICMS-evoked motor output characteristics at each neuronal recording site were determined. Neurons were considered to show swallow and/or tongue-protrusion task-related activity if a statistically significant difference in firing rate was seen in association with these behaviors compared with that observed during a control pretrial period. Of a total of 80 neurons recorded along 40 microelectrode penetrations in the ICMS-defined tongue-MI, 69% showed significant alterations of activity in relation to the swallowing of a juice reward, whereas 66% exhibited significant modulations of firing in association with performance of the trained tongue-protrusion task. Moreover, 48% showed significant alterations of firing in relation to both swallowing and the tongue-protrusion task. These findings suggest that the region of cortex involved in swallowing includes MI and that tongue-MI may play a role in the regulation of semiautomatic tongue movement, in addition to trained motor behavior. Swallow-related tongue-MI neurons exhibited a variety of swallow-related activity patterns and were distributed throughout the ICMS-defined tongue-MI at sites where ICMS evoked a variety of types of tongue movements. These findings are consistent with the view that multiple efferent zones for the production of tongue movements are activated in swallowing. Many swallow-related tongue-MI neurons had an orofacial mechanoreceptive field, particularly on the tongue dorsum, supporting the view that afferent inputs may be involved in the regulation of the swallowing synergy.


2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 2008-2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyoshi Kurata

The ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and the primary motor cortex (MI) of monkeys participate in various sensorimotor integrations, such as the transformation of coordinates from visual to motor space, because the areas contain movement-related neuronal activity reflecting either visual or motor space. In addition to relationship to visual and motor space, laterality of the activity could indicate stages in the visuomotor transformation. Thus we examined laterality and relationship to visual and motor space of movement-related neuronal activity in the PMv and MI of monkeys performing a fast-reaching task with the left or right arm, toward targets with visual and motor coordinates that had been dissociated by shift prisms. We determined laterality of each activity quantitatively and classified it into four types: activity that consistently depended on target locations in either head-centered visual coordinates (V-type) or motor coordinates (M-type) and those that had either differential or nondifferential activity for both coordinates (B- and N-types). A majority of M-type neurons in the areas had preferences for reaching movements with the arm contralateral to the hemisphere where neuronal activity was recorded. In contrast, most of the V-type neurons were recorded in the PMv and exhibited less laterality than the M-type. The B- and N-types were recorded in the PMv and MI and exhibited intermediate properties between the V- and M-types when laterality and correlations to visual and motor space of them were jointly examined. These results suggest that the cortical motor areas contribute to the transformation of coordinates to generate final motor commands.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuki Maruyama ◽  
Masaki Fukunaga ◽  
Sho K. Sugawara ◽  
Yuki H. Hamano ◽  
Tetsuya Yamamoto ◽  
...  

Abstract The primary motor cortex (M1) is crucial for motor learning. However, the interaction of the M1 with other brain areas during motor learning remains unclear. We hypothesized that the fronto-parietal execution network (FPN) provides the learning-related information that is crucial for flexible cognitive control required for practice. We assessed the network-level changes during sequential finger-tapping learning “as fast and as accurately as possible”, by combining magnetic resonance spectroscopy, task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and resting-state fMRI methods using a 7T MR machine. An increase in the glutamate/GABA ratio in the right M1 was positively correlated with task performance improvement. There was a motor learning-related increase in preparatory activity in the fronto-parietal region, with an overlap between the FPN and sensorimotor network (SMN). The learning-related increments in M1-seeded functional connectivity with the FPN, but not the SMN, were positively correlated with changes in the glutamate/GABA ratio in M1. These connectivity changes were more prominent in the parietal region than in the frontal region. Our findings indicate that motor learning driven by cognitive control is associated with local variation in the excitatory-inhibitory balance in the M1 that reflects remote connectivity with the FPN, thereby representing the formation of declarative procedural skills.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Bundy ◽  
David J Guggenmos ◽  
Maxwell D Murphy ◽  
Randolph J. Nudo

AbstractFollowing injury to motor cortex, reorganization occurs throughout spared brain regions and is thought to underlie motor recovery. Unfortunately, the standard neurophysiological and neuroanatomical measures of post-lesion plasticity are only indirectly related to observed changes in motor execution. While substantial task-related neural activity has been observed during motor tasks in rodent primary motor cortex and premotor cortex, the long-term stability of these responses in healthy rats is uncertain, limiting the interpretability of longitudinal changes in the specific patterns of neural activity during motor recovery following injury. This study examined the stability of task-related neural activity associated with execution of reaching movements in healthy rodents. Rats were trained to perform a novel reaching task combining a ‘gross’ lever press and a ‘fine’ pellet retrieval. In each animal, two chronic microelectrode arrays were implanted in motor cortex spanning the caudal forelimb area (rodent primary motor cortex) and the rostral forelimb area (rodent premotor cortex). We recorded multiunit spiking and local field potential activity from 10 days to 7-10 weeks post-implantation to characterize the patterns of neural activity observed during each task component and analyzed the consistency of channel-specific task-related neural activity. Task-related changes in neural activity were observed on the majority of channels. While the task-related changes in multi-unit spiking and local field potential spectral power were consistent over several weeks, spectral power changes were more stable, despite the trade-off of decreased spatial and temporal resolution. These results show that rodent primary and premotor cortex are both involved in reaching movements with stable patterns of task-related activity across time, establishing the relevance of the rodent for future studies designed to examine changes in task-related neural activity during recovery from focal cortical lesions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (02) ◽  
pp. 147-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melina Engelhardt ◽  
Thomas Picht

Abstract Objective Neuronavigated repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS) at a frequency of 1 Hz was shown to reduce excitability in underlying brain areas while increasing excitability in the opposite hemisphere. In stroke patients, this principle is used to normalize activity between the lesioned and healthy hemispheres and to facilitate rehabilitation. However, standardization is lacking in applied protocols, and there is a poor understanding of the underlying physiologic mechanisms. Furthermore, the influence of hemispheric dominance on the intervention has not been studied before. A systematic evaluation of the effects in healthy subjects would deepen the understanding of these mechanisms and offer insights into ways to improve the intervention. Methods Twenty healthy subjects underwent five 15-minute sessions of neuronavigated rTMS or sham stimulation over their dominant or nondominant motor cortex. Dominance was assessed with the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Changes in both hemispheres were measured using behavioral parameters (finger tapping, grip force, and finger dexterity) and TMS measures (resting motor threshold, recruitment curve, motor area, and cortical silent period). Results All subjects tolerated the stimulation well. A pronounced improvement was noted in finger tapping scores over the nonstimulated hemisphere as well as a nonsignificant reduction of the cortical silent period in the stimulated hemisphere, indicating a differential effect of the rTMS on both hemispheres. Grip force remained at the baseline level in the rTMS group while decreasing in the sham group, suggesting the rTMS counterbalanced the effects of fatigue. Lastly, dominance did not influence any of the observed effects. Conclusions This study shows the capability of the applied low-frequency rTMS protocol to modify excitability of underlying brain areas as well as the contralateral hemisphere. It also highlights the need for a better understanding of underlying mechanisms and the identification of predictors for responsiveness to rTMS. However, results should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size.


1999 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 383-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Cramer ◽  
Seth P. Finklestein ◽  
Judith D. Schaechter ◽  
George Bush ◽  
Bruce R. Rosen

Cramer, Steven C., Seth P. Finklestein, Judith D. Schaechter, George Bush, and Bruce R. Rosen. Activation of distinct motor cortex regions during ipsilateral and contralateral finger movements. J. Neurophysiol. 81: 383–387, 1999. Previous studies have shown that unilateral finger movements are normally accompanied by a small activation in ipsilateral motor cortex. The magnitude of this activation has been shown to be altered in a number of conditions, particularly in association with stroke recovery. The site of this activation, however, has received limited attention. To address this question, functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to study precentral gyrus activation in six control and three stroke patients during right index finger tapping, then during left index finger tapping. In each hemisphere, the most significantly activated site ( P < 0.001 required) was identified during ipsilateral and during contralateral finger tapping. In the motor cortex of each hemisphere, the site activated during use of the ipsilateral hand differed from that found during use of the contralateral hand. Among the 11 control hemispheres showing significant activation during both motor tasks, the site for ipsilateral hand representation (relative to contralateral hand site in the same hemisphere) was significantly shifted ventrally in all 11 hemispheres (mean, 11 mm), laterally in 10/11 hemispheres (mean, 12 mm), and anteriorly in 8/11 hemispheres (mean, 10 mm). In 6 of 11 hemispheres, tapping of the contralateral finger simultaneously activated both the ipsilateral and the contralateral finger sites, suggesting bilateral motor control by the ipsilateral finger site. The sites activated during ipsilateral and contralateral hand movement showed similar differences in the unaffected hemisphere of stroke patients. The region of motor cortex activated during ipsilateral hand movements is spatially distinct from that identified during contralateral hand movements.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsouko van Assche ◽  
Elisabeth Dirren ◽  
Alexia Bourgeois ◽  
Andreas Kleinschmidt ◽  
Jonas Richiardi ◽  
...  

Background and Purpose: After stroke restricted to the primary motor cortex (M1), it is uncertain whether network reorganization associated with motor recovery involves the periinfarct or more remote brain regions. In humans, the challenge is to recruit patients with similar lesions in size and location. Methods: We studied 16 patients with focal M1 stroke and hand paresis. Motor function and resting-state MRI functional connectivity (FC) were studied at three time points: acute (<10 days), early subacute (3 weeks), and late subacute (3 months). FC correlates of motor recovery were investigated at three spatial scales, i) ipsilesional non-infarcted M1, ii) core motor network (including M1, premotor cortex (PMC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and primary somatosensory cortex), and iii) extended motor network including all regions structurally connected to the upper limb representation of M1. Results: Hand dexterity was impaired only in the acute phase ( P =0.036). At a small spatial scale, improved dexterity was associated with increased FC involving mainly the ipsilesional non-infarcted M1 and contralesional motor regions (cM1: rho=0.732; P =0.004; cPMC: rho=0.837, P <0.001; cSMA: rho=0.736; P =0.004). At a larger scale, motor recovery correlated with the relative increase in total FC strength in the core motor network compared to the extended motor network (rho=0.71; P =0.006). Conclusions: FC changes associated with motor improvement involve the perilesional M1 and do not extend beyond the core motor network. The ipsilesional non-infarcted M1 and core motor regions could hence be primary targets for future restorative therapies.


Author(s):  
Winifried Backhaus ◽  
Hanna Braaß ◽  
Focko L Higgen ◽  
Christian Gerloff ◽  
Robert Schulz

Abstract Recent brain imaging has evidenced that parietofrontal networks show alterations after stroke which also relate to motor recovery processes. There is converging evidence for an upregulation of parietofrontal coupling between parietal brain regions and frontal motor cortices. The majority of studies though have included only moderately to mildly affected patients, particularly in the subacute or chronic stage. Whether these network alterations will also be present in severely affected patients and early after stroke and whether such information can improve correlative models to infer motor recovery remains unclear. In this prospective cohort study, nineteen severely affected first-ever stroke patients (mean age 74 years, 12 females) were analysed which underwent resting-state functional MRI and clinical testing during the initial week after the event. Clinical evaluation of neurological and motor impairment as well as global disability was repeated after three and six months. Nineteen healthy participants of similar age and gender were also recruited. MRI data were used to calculate functional connectivity values between the ipsilesional primary motor cortex, the ventral premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area and the anterior and caudal intraparietal sulcus of the ipsilesional hemisphere. Linear regression models were estimated to compare parietofrontal functional connectivity between stroke patients and healthy controls and to relate them to motor recovery. The main finding was a significant increase in ipsilesional parietofrontal coupling between anterior intraparietal sulcus and the primary motor cortex in severely affected stroke patients (P &lt; 0.003). This upregulation significantly contributed to correlative models explaining variability in subsequent neurological and global disability as quantified by National Institute of Health Stroke Scale and modified Rankin Scale, respectively. Patients with increased parietofrontal coupling in the acute stage showed higher levels of persistent deficits in the late subacute stage of recovery (P &lt; 0.05). This study provides novel insights that parietofrontal networks of the ipsilesional hemisphere undergo neuroplastic alteration already very early after severe motor stroke. The association between early parietofrontal upregulation and future levels of persistent functional deficits and dependence from help in daily living might be useful in models to enhance clinical neurorehabilitative decision making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiichi Naito ◽  
Tomoyo Morita ◽  
Minoru Asada

Abstract Hand/finger dexterity is well-developed in humans, and the primary motor cortex (M1) is believed to play a particularly important role in it. Here, we show that efficient recruitment of the contralateral M1 and neuronal inhibition of the ipsilateral M1 identified by simple hand motor and proprioceptive tasks are related to hand/finger dexterity and its ontogenetic development. We recruited healthy, right-handed children (n = 21, aged 8–11 years) and adults (n = 23, aged 20–26 years) and measured their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging during active and passive right-hand extension–flexion tasks. We calculated individual active control-related activity (active–passive) to evaluate efficient brain activity recruitment and individual task-related deactivation (neuronal inhibition) during both tasks. Outside the scanner, participants performed 2 right-hand dexterous motor tasks, and we calculated the hand/finger dexterity index (HDI) based on their individual performance. Participants with a higher HDI exhibited less active control-related activity in the contralateral M1 defined by the active and passive tasks, independent of age. Only children with a higher HDI exhibited greater ipsilateral M1 deactivation identified by these tasks. The results imply that hand/finger dexterity can be predicted by recruitment and inhibition styles of the M1 during simple hand sensory–motor tasks.


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