Primary Motor and Sensory Cortex Activation during Motor Performance and Motor Imagery: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
Open accessAbstract
The intensity and spatial distribution of functional activation in the left precentral and postcentral gyri during actual motor performance (MP) and mental representation [motor imagery (MI)] of self-paced finger-to-thumb opposition movements of the dominant hand were investigated in fourteen right-handed volunteers by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. Significant increases in mean normalized fMRI signal intensities over values obtained during the control (visual imagery) tasks were found in a region including the anterior bank and crown of the central sulcus, the presumed site of the primary motor cortex, during both MP (mean percentage increase, 2.1%) and MI (0.8%). In the anterior portion of the precentral gyrus and the postcentral gyrus, mean functional activity levels were also increased during both conditions (MP, 1.7 and 1.2%; MI, 0.6 and 0.4%, respectively). To locate activated foci during MI, MP, or both conditions, the time course of the signal intensities of pixels lying in the precentral or postcentral gyrus was plotted against single-step or double-step waveforms, where the steps of the waveform corresponded to different tasks. Pixels significantly (r > 0.7) activated during both MP and MI were identified in each region in the majority of subjects; percentage increases in signal intensity during MI were on average 30% as great as increases during MP. The pixels activated during both MP and MI appear to represent a large fraction of the whol…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Motor imagery engages a parietal-frontal circuit known to support motor control.
“a parietal–frontal network that mediates motor control is activated during motor imagery (Porro et al., 1996, 2000; Deiber et al., 1998; Lotze et al., 1999; Gerardin et al., 2000; Ehrsson et al., 2003; Hanakawa et al., 2003; Dechent et al., 2004; Meister et al., 2004)”
From Mental imagery of speech and movement implicates the dynamics of internal forward models (2010) · cites this paper as Porro et al., 1996
Craving for cigarettes may elicit preparation for action or voluntary movement, goal directed actions (e.g., lighting a cigarette, bringing a cigarette up to the mouth) and/or motor imagery which are linked to the motor system.
“so that craving for cigarettes may elicit preparation for action or voluntary movement, goal directed actions (e.g., lighting a cigarette, bringing a cigarette up to the mouth) and/or motor imagery which are linked to the motor system66, 67.”
From β2-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Availability During Acute and Prolonged Abstinence From Tobacco Smoking (2009) · cites this paper as [66]
Cites
Lai, S., Hopkins, A. L., Haacke, E. M., Li, D., Wasserman, B. A., Buckley, P., Friedman, L., Meltzer, H., Hedera, P., & Friedland, R. (1993) · Magnetic Resonance in Medicine · doi:10.1002/mrm.1910300318 · Cited by 390 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The emulation theory of representation: Motor control, imagery, and perception
Grush, R. (2004) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x04000093 · Cited by 1,387 · see citing works
Extrastriate body area in human occipital cortex responds to the performance of motor actions
Astafiev, S. V., Stanley, C. M., Shulman, G. L., & Corbetta, M. (2004) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1241 · Cited by 629 · see citing works
Cortical activity during motor execution, motor imagery, and imagery-based online feedback
Miller, K. J., Schalk, G., Fetz, E. E., den Nijs, M., Ojemann, J. G., & Rao, R. P. N. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0913697107 · Cited by 622 · see citing works
Imagining predictions: mental imagery as mental emulation
Moulton, S. T., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2009) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0314 · Cited by 421 · see citing works
Neuper, C., Müller, G. R., Kübler, A., Birbaumer, N., & Pfurtscheller, G. (2003) · Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/s1388-2457(02)00387-5 · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Longcamp, M., Boucard, C., Gilhodes, J.-C., Anton, J.-L., Roth, M., Nazarian, B., & Velay, J.-L. (2008) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20504 · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Decoding of four movement directions using hybrid NIRS-EEG brain-computer interface
Khan, M. J., Hong, M. J., & Hong, K.-S. (2014) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00244 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
Classification of prefrontal and motor cortex signals for three-class fNIRS-BCI
Hong, K.-S., Naseer, N., & Kim, Y.-H. (2015) · Neuroscience Letters · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2014.12.029 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Mental imagery of speech and movement implicates the dynamics of internal forward models
Tian, X. (2010) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00166 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
“In particular, a parietal–frontal network that mediates motor control is activated during motor imagery (Porro et al., 1996, 2000; Deiber et al., 1998; Lotze et al., 1999; Gerardin et al., 2000; Ehrsson et al., 2003; Hanakawa et al., 2003; Dechent et al., 2004; Meister et al., 2004) and activity in…”
InfluentialReopening the Mental Imagery Debate: Lessons from Functional Anatomy
Mellet, E., Petit, L., Mazoyer, B., Denis, M., & Tzourio, N. (1998) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.1998.0355 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Smolka, M. N., Bühler, M., Klein, S., Zimmermann, U., Mann, K., Heinz, A., & Braus, D. F. (2006) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-005-0080-x · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Hotson, G., McMullen, D. P., Fifer, M. S., Johannes, M. S., Katyal, K. D., Para, M. P., Armiger, R., Anderson, W. S., Thakor, N. V., Wester, B. A., et al. (2016) · Journal of Neural Engineering · doi:10.1088/1741-2560/13/2/026017 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Overt and imagined singing of an Italian aria
Kleber, B., Birbaumer, N., Veit, R., Trevorrow, T., & Lotze, M. (2007) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.02.053 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Cosgrove, K. P., Batis, J., Bois, F., Maciejewski, P. K., Esterlis, I., Kloczynski, T., Stiklus, S., Krishnan-Sarin, S., O’Malley, S., Perry, E., et al. (2009) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.41 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Mental Health Benefits of Strength Training in Adults
O'Connor, P. J., Herring, M. P., & Caravalho, A. (2010) · American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine · doi:10.1177/1559827610368771 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Attention influences the excitability of cortical motor areas in healthy humans
Conte, A., Gilio, F., Iezzi, E., Frasca, V., Inghilleri, M., & Berardelli, A. (2007) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-007-0975-3 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Voluntary teeth clenching facilitates human motor system excitability
Boroojerdi, B., Battaglia, F., Muellbacher, W., & Cohen, L. G. (2000) · Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/s1388-2457(00)00279-0 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Covert speech arrest induced by rTMS over both motor and nonmotor left hemisphere frontal sites
Aziz-Zadeh, L., Cattaneo, L., Rochat, M., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/0898929054021157 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Changes in breathing during observation of effortful actions
Paccalin, C., & Jeannerod, M. (2000) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/s0006-8993(00)02145-4 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Jacquet, T., Lepers, R., Poulin-Charronnat, B., Bard, P., Pfister, P., & Pageaux, B. (2021) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107701 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Hiremath, S. V., Chen, W., Wang, W., Foldes, S., Yang, Y., Tyler-Kabara, E. C., Collinger, J. L., & Boninger, M. L. (2015) · Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnint.2015.00040 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
- Authors
- Porro, C. A., Francescato, M. P., Cettolo, V., Diamond, M. E., Baraldi, P., Zuiani, C., Bazzocchi, M., & di Prampero, P. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Udine (IT)
- University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT)
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 1996-12-01
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- 7688-7698
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6579073
- OpenAlex
- W2168512521
- Cited by
- 924
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 7.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- SDL (submittedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (University of Udine) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Keywords
- motor imagery, motor performance, primary motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, central sulcus, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, visual imagery, self-paced movement
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Imagination, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motor Activity, Motor Cortex, Somatosensory Cortex
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
