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Brain activation during simple hand-fingers movements vs hand writing: An fMRI study
NemoImage 13, Number 6, 2001, Part 2 of 2 Parts 1 D EI;Lw
SENSORIMOTOR
BRAIN ACTIVATION DURING SIMPLE HAND-FINGERS MOVEMENTS vs HAND WRITING: AN fMRI STUDY Antonio Ferretti*, Flavia Paurit, Cosimo Del Gratta*$& Andrea De Nicola*, Armando Tar&o*& Lorenzo Bonomo*$, Gian Luca Romani*$$, Paolo Maria Rosshit* *Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate Biomediche, Universitd di Chieti “G. D ‘Annunzio “, Italia ?-AFaR-CRCCS “Isola Tiberina”, Roma, Italia SDipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Bioimmagini, Universit& di Chieti “G. D’Annunzio”, $Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, UdR L’Aquila, Italia ‘IRCCS “Centro S. Giovanni di Dio - FbF”, Brescia, Italia
Italia
Hand writing is a sophisticated cerebral function that requires a highly integrated brain-hand activity. In this respect, only few investigations through functional brain imaging methodologies have been performed. The aim of this study is to analyse in detail within the same subjects the patterns of brain activation via fMBI during a hand-finger movement task and during hand writing with a pen. Both tasks have been compared in normal subjects using the ‘dominant’ as well as the ‘non dominant’ hand. Eight healthy volunteers, participated in this study, atIer their informed consent had been given and the protocol had received the approval of the local Ethics Committee. AlI of them were right handed according to the Edinburgh Inventory. They were instructed to perform two different motor tasks: a self-paced finger tapping, and a writing exercise. The former consisted in the sequential opposition of the thumb to the other fingers, while the latter consisted in writing with a pen several times the letter ‘T’ without interruption and without visual feed-back. To detect areas of increased MB signal intensity due to the motor tasks, fMRI was performed during a rest condition and during each of the two motor tasks. Difference of signal intensity was asses& by means of a t-test. Spatial extension somatasw~ory cortexeIicitedduringleft tin(volume) of activations was evaluated as the number of voxels with P
S1318
SENSORIMOTOR
BRAIN ACTIVATION DURING SIMPLE HAND-FINGERS MOVEMENTS vs HAND WRITING: AN fMRI STUDY Antonio Ferretti*, Flavia Paurit, Cosimo Del Gratta*$& Andrea De Nicola*, Armando Tar&o*& Lorenzo Bonomo*$, Gian Luca Romani*$$, Paolo Maria Rosshit* *Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate Biomediche, Universitd di Chieti “G. D ‘Annunzio “, Italia ?-AFaR-CRCCS “Isola Tiberina”, Roma, Italia SDipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Bioimmagini, Universit& di Chieti “G. D’Annunzio”, $Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, UdR L’Aquila, Italia ‘IRCCS “Centro S. Giovanni di Dio - FbF”, Brescia, Italia
Italia
Hand writing is a sophisticated cerebral function that requires a highly integrated brain-hand activity. In this respect, only few investigations through functional brain imaging methodologies have been performed. The aim of this study is to analyse in detail within the same subjects the patterns of brain activation via fMBI during a hand-finger movement task and during hand writing with a pen. Both tasks have been compared in normal subjects using the ‘dominant’ as well as the ‘non dominant’ hand. Eight healthy volunteers, participated in this study, atIer their informed consent had been given and the protocol had received the approval of the local Ethics Committee. AlI of them were right handed according to the Edinburgh Inventory. They were instructed to perform two different motor tasks: a self-paced finger tapping, and a writing exercise. The former consisted in the sequential opposition of the thumb to the other fingers, while the latter consisted in writing with a pen several times the letter ‘T’ without interruption and without visual feed-back. To detect areas of increased MB signal intensity due to the motor tasks, fMRI was performed during a rest condition and during each of the two motor tasks. Difference of signal intensity was asses& by means of a t-test. Spatial extension somatasw~ory cortexeIicitedduringleft tin(volume) of activations was evaluated as the number of voxels with P
S1318