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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 15, 2002, 22(12):5074-5080
Brain Regions Controlling Nonsynergistic versus Synergistic
Movement of the Digits: a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Study
H. Henrik
Ehrsson1, 2,
Johann P.
Kuhtz-Buschbeck1, 3, and
Hans
Forssberg1
1 Motor Control Laboratory, Department of Woman and
Child Health, and 2 Division of Human Brain Research,
Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm,
Sweden, and 3 Institute of Physiology, Christian-Albrechts
University, D 24098 Kiel, Germany
Human hand dexterity depends on the ability to move digits
independently and to combine these movements in various coordinative patterns. It is well established that the primary motor cortex (M1) is
important for skillful digit actions but less is known about the role
played by the nonprimary motor centers. Here we use functional magnetic
resonance imaging to examine the hypothesis that nonprimary motor areas
and the posterior parietal cortex are strongly activated when healthy
humans move the right digits in a skillful coordination pattern
involving relatively independent digit movements. A task in which
flexion of the thumb is accompanied by extension of the fingers and
vice versa, i.e., a learned "nonsynergistic" coordination pattern,
is contrasted with a task in which all digits flex and extend
simultaneously in an innate synergistic coordination pattern (opening
and closing the fist). The motor output is the same in the two
conditions. Thus, the difference when contrasting the nonsynergistic
and synergistic tasks represents the requirement to fractionate the
movements of the thumb and fingers and to combine these movements in a
learned coordinative pattern. The supplementary (and cingulate) motor
area, the bilateral dorsal premotor area, the bilateral lateral
cerebellum, the bilateral cortices of the postcentral sulcus, and the
left intraparietal cortex showed stronger activity when the subjects
made the nonsynergistic flexion-extension movements of the digits than
when the synergistic movements were made. These results suggest that
the human neural substrate for skillful digit movement includes a
sensorimotor network of nonprimary frontoparietal areas and the
cerebellum that, in conjunction with M1, control the movements of the digits.
Key words:
supplementary motor area; premotor cortex; cerebellum; posterior parietal cortex; manual dexterity; hand
posture
Copyright © 2002 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/02/22125074-07$05.00/0
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