Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Functional imaging of rostrocaudal spinal activity during upper limb motor tasks

Published inNeuroImage, vol. 200, p. 590-600
Publication date2019
Abstract

The spinal cord is the main interface between the brain and the periphery. It notably plays a central role in motor control, as spinal motoneurons activate skeletal muscles involved in voluntary movements. Yet, the spinal mechanisms underlying human movement generation have not been completely elucidated. In this regard, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) represents a potential tool to probe spinal cord function non-invasively and with high spatial resolution. Nonetheless, a thorough characterization of this approach is still lacking, currently limiting its impact. Here, we aimed at systematically quantifying to which extent fMRI can reveal spinal cord activity along the rostrocaudal direction. We investigated changes in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal of the human cervical spinal cord during bimanual upper limb movements (wrist extension, wrist adduction and finger abduction) in nineteen healthy volunteers. Prior to scanning, we recorded the muscle activity associated with these movements in order to reconstruct the theoretical motor-pool output pattern using an anatomy-based mapping of the electromyographic (EMG) waveforms. EMG-derived spinal maps were characterized by distinct rostrocaudal patterns of activation, thus confirming the task-specific features of the different movements. Analogous activation patterns were captured using spinal cord fMRI. Finally, an additional fMRI dataset was acquired from a subset of the participants (n = 6) to deploy a multivoxel pattern analysis, which allowed successful decoding of movements. These combined results suggest that spinal cord fMRI can be used to image rostrocaudal activation patterns reflecting the underlying activity of the motoneuron pools innervating the task-related muscles. Spinal cord fMRI offers the prospect of a novel tool to study motor processes and potentially their modification following neurological motor disorders.

Keywords
  • Functional MRI
  • Spinal cord
  • Motor task
  • Upper limb
  • Electromyography
Citation (ISO format)
KINANY, Nawal et al. Functional imaging of rostrocaudal spinal activity during upper limb motor tasks. In: NeuroImage, 2019, vol. 200, p. 590–600. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.036
Main files (2)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Article (Accepted version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1053-8119
297views
402downloads

Technical informations

Creation26/07/2020 16:54:00
First validation26/07/2020 16:54:00
Update time15/03/2023 22:21:02
Status update15/03/2023 22:21:01
Last indexation31/10/2024 19:18:22
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack