Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision
Abnormal contralesional M1 activity is consistently reported in patients with compromised upper limb and hand function after stroke. The underlying mechanisms and functional implications of this activity are not clear, which hampers the development of treatment strategies targeting this brain area....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.836716/full |
| _version_ | 1818238314080108544 |
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| author | Kate Pirog Revill Deborah A. Barany Isabelle Vernon Stephanie Rellick Alexandra Caliban Julie Tran Samir R. Belagaje Fadi Nahab Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch |
| author_facet | Kate Pirog Revill Deborah A. Barany Isabelle Vernon Stephanie Rellick Alexandra Caliban Julie Tran Samir R. Belagaje Fadi Nahab Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch |
| author_sort | Kate Pirog Revill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abnormal contralesional M1 activity is consistently reported in patients with compromised upper limb and hand function after stroke. The underlying mechanisms and functional implications of this activity are not clear, which hampers the development of treatment strategies targeting this brain area. The goal of the present study was to determine the extent to which contralesional M1 activity can be explained by the demand of a motor task, given recent evidence for increasing ipsilateral M1 activity with increasing demand in healthy age-matched controls. We hypothesized that higher activity in contralesional M1 is related to greater demand on precision in a hand motor task. fMRI data were collected from 19 patients with ischemic stroke affecting hand function in the subacute recovery phase and 31 healthy, right-handed, age-matched controls. The hand motor task was designed to parametrically modulate the demand on movement precision. Electromyography data confirmed strictly unilateral task performance by all participants. Patients showed significant impairment relative to controls in their ability to perform the task in the fMRI scanner. However, patients and controls responded similarly to an increase in demand for precision, with better performance for larger targets and poorer performance for smaller targets. Patients did not show evidence of elevated ipsilesional or contralesional M1 blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activation relative to healthy controls and mean BOLD activation levels were not elevated for patients with poorer performance relative to patients with better task performance. While both patients and healthy controls showed demand-dependent increases in BOLD activation in both ipsilesional/contralateral and contralesional/ipsilateral hemispheres, patients with stroke were less likely to show evidence of a linear relationship between the demand on precision and BOLD activation in contralesional M1 than healthy controls. Taken together, the findings suggest that task demand affects the BOLD response in contralesional M1 in patients with stroke, though perhaps less strongly than in healthy controls. This has implications for the interpretation of reported abnormal bilateral M1 activation in patients with stroke because in addition to contralesional M1 reorganization processes it could be partially related to a response to the relatively higher demand of a motor task when completed by patients rather than by healthy controls. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T12:39:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2a286e330a9a405291e57961c66a569d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T12:39:41Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj.art-2a286e330a9a405291e57961c66a569d2022-12-22T00:24:14ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952022-05-011310.3389/fneur.2022.836716836716Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on PrecisionKate Pirog Revill0Deborah A. Barany1Isabelle Vernon2Stephanie Rellick3Alexandra Caliban4Julie Tran5Samir R. Belagaje6Fadi Nahab7Marc W. Haut8Marc W. Haut9Marc W. Haut10Cathrin M. Buetefisch11Cathrin M. Buetefisch12Cathrin M. Buetefisch13Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United StatesDepartment of Radiology, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesDepartment of Radiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United StatesAbnormal contralesional M1 activity is consistently reported in patients with compromised upper limb and hand function after stroke. The underlying mechanisms and functional implications of this activity are not clear, which hampers the development of treatment strategies targeting this brain area. The goal of the present study was to determine the extent to which contralesional M1 activity can be explained by the demand of a motor task, given recent evidence for increasing ipsilateral M1 activity with increasing demand in healthy age-matched controls. We hypothesized that higher activity in contralesional M1 is related to greater demand on precision in a hand motor task. fMRI data were collected from 19 patients with ischemic stroke affecting hand function in the subacute recovery phase and 31 healthy, right-handed, age-matched controls. The hand motor task was designed to parametrically modulate the demand on movement precision. Electromyography data confirmed strictly unilateral task performance by all participants. Patients showed significant impairment relative to controls in their ability to perform the task in the fMRI scanner. However, patients and controls responded similarly to an increase in demand for precision, with better performance for larger targets and poorer performance for smaller targets. Patients did not show evidence of elevated ipsilesional or contralesional M1 blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activation relative to healthy controls and mean BOLD activation levels were not elevated for patients with poorer performance relative to patients with better task performance. While both patients and healthy controls showed demand-dependent increases in BOLD activation in both ipsilesional/contralateral and contralesional/ipsilateral hemispheres, patients with stroke were less likely to show evidence of a linear relationship between the demand on precision and BOLD activation in contralesional M1 than healthy controls. Taken together, the findings suggest that task demand affects the BOLD response in contralesional M1 in patients with stroke, though perhaps less strongly than in healthy controls. This has implications for the interpretation of reported abnormal bilateral M1 activation in patients with stroke because in addition to contralesional M1 reorganization processes it could be partially related to a response to the relatively higher demand of a motor task when completed by patients rather than by healthy controls.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.836716/fullfMRIstrokemotor cortexhand functionmotor recovery-cerebral infarct |
| spellingShingle | Kate Pirog Revill Deborah A. Barany Isabelle Vernon Stephanie Rellick Alexandra Caliban Julie Tran Samir R. Belagaje Fadi Nahab Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Marc W. Haut Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch Cathrin M. Buetefisch Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision Frontiers in Neurology fMRI stroke motor cortex hand function motor recovery-cerebral infarct |
| title | Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision |
| title_full | Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision |
| title_short | Evaluating the Abnormality of Bilateral Motor Cortex Activity in Subacute Stroke Patients Executing a Unimanual Motor Task With Increasing Demand on Precision |
| title_sort | evaluating the abnormality of bilateral motor cortex activity in subacute stroke patients executing a unimanual motor task with increasing demand on precision |
| topic | fMRI stroke motor cortex hand function motor recovery-cerebral infarct |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.836716/full |
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