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Related Experiment Videos

Ipsilateral motor cortex activity during unimanual hand movements relates to task complexity.

Timothy Verstynen1, Jörn Diedrichsen, Neil Albert

  • 1Deptartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. timothyv@socrates.berkeley.edu

Journal of Neurophysiology
|November 5, 2004
PubMed
Summary

The left hemisphere plays a key role in executing complex movements, regardless of whether they are sequential. This finding emerged from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on motor cortex activity during various hand movements.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

  • Previous functional imaging studies show ipsilateral motor area recruitment during sequential unimanual finger movements.
  • This recruitment is more pronounced in the left hemisphere for left-hand movements compared to the right hemisphere for right-hand movements.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if the observed lateralization pattern is specific to sequential actions or applies to other complex movements.
  • To investigate the role of the motor cortex in executing different types of unimanual movements.

Main Methods:

  • Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure motor cortex activation.
  • Participants performed three types of unimanual movements: sequential finger movements, repetitive chords, and single-finger tapping.

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  • A control experiment assessed the effect of muscle count on ipsilateral activity.

    • Main Results:

    • Strong ipsilateral motor cortex activation was observed during sequence and chord movements, particularly in the left hemisphere during left-hand actions.
    • This pattern was present in both right-handed and left-handed individuals.
    • Ipsilateral activation was less pronounced during simple tapping and was specific to complex movements, not dependent on the number of muscles involved.

    Conclusions:

    • The left hemisphere plays a prominent role in the execution of complex movements, independent of their sequential nature.
    • Ipsilateral activation during complex movements is linked to movement execution rather than planning.