Abstract
Motor imagery (MI), the mental rehearsal of motor tasks, has promise as a therapy in post-stroke rehabilitation. The potential effectiveness of MI is attributed to the facilitation of plasticity in numerous brain regions akin to those recruited for physical practice. It is suggested, however, that MI relies more heavily on regions commonly affected post-stroke, including left hemisphere parietal regions involved in visuospatial processes. However, the impact of parietal damage on MI-based skill acquisition that underlies rehabilitation remains unclear. Here, we examine the contribution of the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) to MI using inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and an MI-based implicit sequence learning (ISL) paradigm. Participants (N = 27) completed the MI-based ISL paradigm after receiving continuous theta burst stimulation to the left IPL (TMS), or with the coil angled away from the scalp (sham). Reaction time differences (dRT) and effect sizes between implicit and random sequences assessed success of MI-based learning. Mean dRT for the sham group was 36.1 ± 28.2 ms (d = 0.71). Mean dRT in the TMS group was 7.7 ± 38.5 ms (d = 0.11). These results indicate that inhibition of the left IPL impaired MI-based learning. We conclude that the IPL and likely the visuospatial processes it mediates are critical for MI performance and thus MI-based skill acquisition or learning. Ultimately, these findings have implications for the use of MI in post-stroke rehabilitation.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) awarded to SB. SK is supported by training awards from NSERC and the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship.
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221_2015_4472_MOESM1_ESM.tif
Supplementary Figure 1. Validation of the target site (IPL) in a participant using their anatomical MRI. The left panel shows target placement for localization of the hot spot and inferior parietal lobe (IPL) on a template brain, with localization of the IPL via MNI coordinates on a participants anatomical MRI shown in the middle and right panels.(TIFF 1073 kb)
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Kraeutner, S.N., Keeler, L.T. & Boe, S.G. Motor imagery-based skill acquisition disrupted following rTMS of the inferior parietal lobule. Exp Brain Res 234, 397–407 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4472-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4472-9