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Jeannerod (2001) hypothesized that action execution, imagery, and observation are functionally equivalent. This led to the major prediction that these motor states are based on the same action-specific and even effector-specific motor representations. The present study examined whether hand and foot movements are represented in a somatotopic manner during action execution, imagery, and action observation. The experiment contained ten conditions: three execution conditions, three imagery conditions, three observation conditions, and one baseline condition. In the nine experimental conditions, participants had to execute, observe, or imagine right-hand extension/flexion movements or right-foot extension/flexion movements. The fMRI results showed a somatotopic organization within the contralateral premotor and primary motor cortex during motor imagery and motor execution. However, there was no clear somatotopic organization of action observation in the given regions of interest within the contralateral hemisphere, although observation of these movements activated these areas significantly.
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Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was applied to identify cortical areas involved in maintaining target information in working memory used for an upcoming grasping action. Participants had to grasp with their thumb and index finger of the dominant right hand three-dimensional objects of different size and orientation. Reaching-to-grasp movements were performed without visual feedback either immediately after object presentation or after a variable delay of 2-12 s. The right inferior parietal cortex demonstrated sustained neural activity throughout the delay, which overlapped with activity observed during encoding of the grasp target. Immediate and delayed grasping activated similar motor-related brain areas and showed no differential activity. The results suggest that the right inferior parietal cortex plays an important functional role in working memory maintenance of grasp-related information. Moreover, our findings confirm the assumption that brain areas engaged in maintaining information are also involved in encoding the same information, and thus extend previous findings on working memory function of the posterior parietal cortex in saccadic behavior to reach-to-grasp movements.
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Current models of attention describe attention not as a homogenous entity but as a set of neural networks whose measurement yields a set of three endophenotypes-alerting, orienting, and executive control. Previous findings revealed different neuroanatomical regions for these subsystems, and data from twin studies indicate differences in their heritability. The present study investigated the molecular genetic basis of attention in a sample of 100 healthy subjects. Attention performance was assessed with the attention network test that distinguishes alerting, orienting, and executive control (conflict) using a simple reaction time paradigm with different cues and congruent and incongruent flankers. Two gene loci on candidate genes for cognitive functioning, the functional catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) VAL158MET and the tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) -703 G/T promoter polymorphism, were tested for possible associations with attention. COMT is involved in the catabolism of dopamine, and TPH is the rate-limiting enzyme for serotonin synthesis. Results showed no effect of the COMT polymorphism on attention performance. However, the TT genotype of TPH2 -03 G/T was significantly associated with more errors (a possible indicator of impaired impulse control; p = .001) and with decreased performance in executive control (p = .001). This single-nucleotide polymorphism on the TPH2 gene explained more than 10% of the variance in both indicators of attention stressing the role of the serotonergic system for cognitive functions.
Erkunden
Team
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (3)
Thema
- Psychomotor Performance/*physiology
- Adult (3)
- Attention/*physiology (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- Brain Mapping/methods (1)
- Catechol O-Methyltransferase/genetics (1)
- DNA Primers (1)
- Female (3)
- Fixation, Ocular (1)
- Foot/physiology (1)
- Genotype (1)
- Hand/physiology (1)
- Hand Strength/*physiology (1)
- Humans (3)
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted (1)
- *Imagery, Psychotherapy/methods (1)
- Intelligence/*genetics (1)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods (1)
- Male (3)
- Memory, Short-Term/*physiology (1)
- Motor Cortex/*physiology (1)
- Motor Cortex/physiology (1)
- Movement/*physiology (1)
- Nerve Net/physiology (1)
- Orientation/physiology (1)
- Oxygen/blood (1)
- Parietal Lobe/*physiology (1)
- Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics (1)
- Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics (1)
- Reaction Time/physiology (1)
- Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (1)
- Sex Characteristics (1)
- Somatosensory Cortex/physiology (1)
- Space Perception/*physiology (1)
- Supine Position/physiology (1)
- Tryptophan Hydroxylase/*genetics (1)
- Visual Cortex/physiology (1)
- Visual Perception/physiology (1)
- Young Adult (2)