Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Rodent Behavioral Testing to Assess Functional Deficits Caused by Microelectrode Implantation in the Rat Motor Cortex
Published on: August 18, 2018
Motor Control Deficits in Facial Synkinesis Patients: Neuroimaging Evidences of Cerebral Cortex Involvement
Jia-Jia Wu1, Ye-Chen Lu2, Mou-Xiong Zheng1,3
1Center of Rehabilitation Medicine, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
Facial synkinesis is a severe sequelae of facial nerve malfunction. Once the synkinesis is established, it is extremely difficult for patients to recover. Given that the restoration of motor or sensory function after peripheral nerve injury was closely related with cortical plasticity, we investigated cortical plasticity in facial synkinesis patients by the frequency-specific data which remains largely uncharacterized.
Materials And Methods:
Resting-state fMRI was conducted in 20 facial synkinesis patients and 19 healthy controls, and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in five different frequency bands (slow-6: 0-0.01 Hz; slow-5: 0.01-0.027 Hz; slow-4: 0.027-0.073 Hz; slow-3: 0.073-0.167 Hz; and slow-2: 0.167-0.25 Hz) was calculated, respectively. And the relationship between ALFF and clinical outcomes was also analyzed.
Results:
Comparing with the healthy controls, facial synkinesis patients showed significantly different ALFF values, mainly in the sensorimotor areas. Furthermore, increased ALFF of the ipsilateral insula in the slow-6 band was significantly related with better facial nerve function.
Conclusion:
Increased ALFF values in the ipsilateral insula might reflect an abnormal state of hypercompensation in motor control of facial synkinesis patients. It provided valuable spatial information about the functionally aberrant regions, which implied the possible involvement of motor control system in facial synkinesis.
Related Concept Videos
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex....
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex
Hierarchy of Motor Control
The Evidence for Evolution
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Muscles for Facial Expressions

