Monitoring of task performance during functional magnetic resonance imaging of sensorimotor cortex at 1.5 T

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has found widespread clinical interest. Difficulties in clinical use of the fMRI technique arise, considering the lack of knowledge about activation task performance. This accounts especially for sensorimotor activation studies, in which performance of the sensorimotor activation task is—if at all—usually rated visually by subjective or semiquantitative methods (i.e., defining categories of performance such as neurological soft signs scales). Recently, instrumental methods for the measurement and analysis of motor performance have been developed. Pronation/supination (hand rotation) movement was shown to be an easily measurable and promising motor task. We have adapted a mechanic device (pronation/supination device, PSD) to monitor motor performance during the fMRI experiment. In a feasibility study, an investigation of fMRI activation strength dependence of sensorimotor cortices and supplementary motor area upon task frequency (25, 50, and 75 cycles/min) was carried out on 10 right-handed healthy volunteers. Furthermore, the authors report the observation of stimulus-induced activation changes in the cerebellum during pronation/supination movement.