Paper Info
Title
Subjective vividness of motor imagery has a neural signature in human premotor and parietal cortex.
Abstract
Motor imagery (MI) is the process in which subjects imagine executing a body movement with a strong kinesthetic component from a first-person perspective. The individual capacity to elicit such mental images is not universal but varies within and between subjects. Neuroimaging studies have shown that these inter-as well as intra-individual differences in imagery quality mediate the amplitude of neural activity during MI on a group level. However, these analyses were not sensitive to forms of representation that may not map onto a simple modulation of overall amplitude. Therefore, the present study asked how far the subjective impression of motor imagery vividness is reflected by a spatial neural code, and how patterns of neural activation in different motor regions relate to specific imagery impressions. During fMRI scanning, 20 volunteers imagined three different types of right-hand actions. After each imagery trial, subjects were asked to evaluate the perceived vividness of their imagery. A correlation analysis compared the rating differences and neural dissimilarity values of the rating groups separately for each region of interest. Results showed a significant positive correlation in the left vPMC and right IPL, indicating that these regions particularly reflect perceived imagery vividness in that similar rated trials evoke more similar neural patterns. A decoding analysis revealed that the vividness of the motor image related systematically to the action specificity of neural activation patterns in left vPMC and right SPL. Imagined actions accompanied by higher vividness ratings were significantly more distinguishable within these areas. Altogether, results showed that spatial patterns of neural activity within the human motor cortices reflect the individual vividness of imagined actions. Hence, the findings reveal a link between the subjective impression of motor imagery vividness and objective physiological markers.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.073
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Vividness of imagery,Motor imagery,MVPA,RSA
Kinesthetic learning,Neural coding,Neural activity,Psychology,Cognitive psychology,Mental image,Posterior parietal cortex,Neuroimaging,Region of interest,Motor imagery
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
197
1053-8119
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.35
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Adam Zabicki110.35
Benjamin de Haas261.19
Karen Zentgraf3102.92
Rudolf Stark45514.53
Jörn Munzert521.09
Britta Krüger610.69