科研之友
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摘要
Objectives To investigate functional cerebral abnormalities in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during action observation. @@@ Methods Thirty patients with ALS and 30 matched healthy controls underwent fMRI with an experimental paradigm while observing a video of repetitive flexion-extension of the fingers at three frequency levels or three complexity levels, alternated with periods of a static hand. A parametric analysis was applied to determine the effects of each of the two factors. @@@ Results Action observation activated similar neural networks as the research on execution of action in the ALS patients and healthy subjects in several brain regions related to the mirror-neuron system (MNS). In the ALS patients, in particular, the dorsal lateral premotor cortex (dPMC), inferior parietal gyrus (IPG), and SMA, were more activated compared with the activation in the controls. Increased activation within the primary motor cortex (M1), dPMC, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and superior parietal gyrus (SPG) mainly correlated with hand movement frequency/complexity in the videos in the patients compared with controls. @@@ Conclusions The findings indicated an ongoing compensatory process occurring within the higher order motor-processing system of ALS patients, likely to overcome the loss of function.
