Sensorimotor event-related desynchronization and hemodynamic responses during motor and tactile imagery

Mental imagery is widely used in cognitive neuroscience and rehabilitation studies, yet their neural mechanisms remain not fully understood. In this study, we investigated neural correlates of motor and tactile imagery using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recordings. A total of 16 healthy participants performed motor and tactile imagery tasks while brain activity was assessed. We analyzed event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the mu-rhythm and hemodynamic responses in sensory-motor regions. Similar spatio-temporal EEG patterns were observed for both motor and tactile imagery conditions (e.g., prominent contralateral ERD at C3). Hemodynamic responses differed: motor imagery elicited activation in both precentral and postcentral regions (p = 0.433), whereas tactile imagery predominantly engaged postcentral regions. The latter effect reached significance only in the functional channels of interest (fCOI) analysis (p = 0.003) and showed a non-significant trend across the full anatomical channel groups (p = 0.101). Correlation analysis revealed a strong across-subject correlation (r = 0.84; p < 0.001) between ERD values in motor and tactile imagery, but no correlation between ERD and hemodynamic responses. Linear mixed model analysis revealed significant (p < 0.001) associations between precentral and postcentral HRs for both MI and TI. These findings suggest that although motor and tactile imagery share common sensorimotor engagement at the electrophysiological level, their hemodynamic signatures are distinct. The absence of linear associations between modalities highlights the complexity of brain dynamics and the importance of multimodal assessments. The findings have implications for the design of brain-computer interfaces and rehabilitation protocols using mental imagery.