Review article (meta-analysis)Specific Brain Lesions Impair Explicit Motor Imagery Ability: A Systematic Review of the Evidence
Section snippets
Study selection criteria
The literature search was conducted between May 8 and May 14, 2014, by a reference librarian. Seven electronic databases were searched, including CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, PsychINFO, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, and the Grey Literature (eg, Canadian Public Policy Collection, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) from inception to present. The search was limited to adult (≥18y) participants. Keywords and Medical Subject Headings from 2 concepts (MI and
Study selection
Figure 2 summarizes how studies were selected for inclusion in this systematic review. The 23 studies comprised 196 participants, including 97 patients poststroke, 75 patients with PD, 7 surgical patients, 1 patient with herpes encephalitis, 1 patient with degenerative pyramidal syndrome, and 15 healthy subjects in whom temporary lesions were created using transcranial magnetic stimulation (see table 2). The 23 studies included 8 different methods for assessing MI ability, including subjective
Discussion
In keeping with our aim to investigate the impact of brain damage on MI ability, we identified 3 structures that when damaged impair MI ability: the parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and basal ganglia. Specifically, we show MI ability is greatly impacted by parietal lobe damage and moderately impacted by frontal lobe damage, albeit outside the posterior region (see fig 3). Furthermore, we show that damage to the basal ganglia, specifically the putamen, impairs MI ability in patients with
Conclusions
Although previous reviews have explored which regions of the brain are involved in MI,5, 27 we have shown which regions, when damaged, impair or prevent MI performance. Our results suggest that parietal lobe damage prevents MI ability, whereas frontal lobe and basal ganglia damage impair MI ability. Although the patients with PD and cerebellar damage in our study show unimpaired MI ability, this finding should be interpreted in the context of methodologic limitations. The aforementioned
Acknowledgments
We thank Carl Helmick, MSc, and the Brain Imaging Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University for assistance in generating figure 2.
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Cited by (0)
Supported by a Summer Studentship from the Canadian Stroke Network and an Early Career Research Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Disclosures: none.