Research report: Cortical and cerebellar activity of the human brain during imagined and executed unimanual and bimanual action sequences: a functional MRI study

The neural (blood oxygenation level dependent) correlates of executed and imagined finger sequences, both unimanual and bimanual, were studied in adult right-handed volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the entire brain. The finger to thumb opposition tasks each consisted of three conditions, two unimanual and one bimanual. Each experimental condition consisted of overt movement of the fingers in a prescribed sequence and imagery of the same task. An intricate network consisting of sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), superior parietal lobule and cerebellum was identified when the tasks involved both planning and execution. During imagery alone, however, cerebellar activity was largely absent. This apparent decoupling of sensorimotor cortical and cerebellar areas during imagined movement sequences, suggests that cortico-cerebellar loops are engaged only when action sequences are both intended and realized. In line with recent models of motor control, the cerebellum may monitor cortical output and feed back corrective information to the motor cortex primarily during actual, not imagined, movements. Although parietal cortex activation occurred during both execution and imagery tasks, it was most consistently present during bimanual action sequences. The engagement of the superior parietal lobule appears to be related to the increased attention and memory resources associated, in the present instance, with coordinating difficult bimanual sequences.