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Brain activity during visuomotor behavior triggered by arbitrary and spatially constrained cues: an fMRI study in humans

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Abstract

Rule-based behavior associating nonspatial visual stimuli with learned responses is called arbitrary visuomotor mapping, an ability that enriches behavioral repertoire. To better understand the underlying neural correlates, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored brain activity during visually informed movement involving two different types of cues and two different effectors. After being trained on the tasks, six healthy subjects performed right or left finger tapping tasks according to either arbitrary cues or spatially constrained cues. An event-related fMRI experiment was conducted on a 3-T MRI. The image data were analyzed with statistical parametric mapping. With the aid of the probabilistic architectonic map in the stereotaxic space, we identified three types of task-related brain activity: cue-selective, effector-selective, and nonselective. The left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the rostral part of the right dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) exhibited cue-selective activity, which was greater during the arbitrary condition than the spatially constrained condition. The left ventral prefrontal activity may reflect retrieval of visuomotor association from memory in arbitrary context. The rostral part of the left PMd showed nonselective activity while the caudal part of the PMd on each side showed conspicuous effector-selective activity to the contralateral movement. These findings suggest functional demarcation of the PMd between its rostral and dorsal parts during visuomotor mapping.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Devera G. Schoenberg, MS, for her skilful editing. This work was in part supported by a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Intramural Competitive Fellowship Award and also at a writing stage by a Grant-in-Aid on Fundamental Research (C) (17500210) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan to T.H.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Motor Control Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bldg.10, Room 5N226, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1428, USA

    Takashi Hanakawa, Giancarlo Zito, Michael A. Dimyan & Mark Hallett

  2. Department of Cortical Function Disorders, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8502, Japan

    Takashi Hanakawa & Manabu Honda

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  1. Takashi Hanakawa
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  2. Manabu Honda
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  3. Giancarlo Zito
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  4. Michael A. Dimyan
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  5. Mark Hallett
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Correspondence to Mark Hallett.

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Hanakawa, T., Honda, M., Zito, G. et al. Brain activity during visuomotor behavior triggered by arbitrary and spatially constrained cues: an fMRI study in humans. Exp Brain Res 172, 275–282 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-005-0336-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-005-0336-z

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