muscles in “concert” study of primary motor cortex upper limb functional topography肌肉在u201c音乐会u201d研究的初级运动皮层上肢功能地形.pdfVIP

Muscles in ‘‘Concert’’: Study of Primary Motor Cortex Upper Limb Functional Topography 1 2,3 4 1,2,3 Jean-Marc Melgari *, Patrizio Pasqualetti , Flavia Pauri , Paolo Maria Rossini 1 Neurology, University Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy, 2 Medical Statistics Information Technology, AFaR, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Isola Tiberina, Rome, 3 Casa di ` Cura SAN RAFFAELE Cassino and IRCCS SAN RAFFAELE, Pisana, Rome, Italy, 4 Department of Neurology and ORL, Universita La Sapienza, Rome, Italy Abstract Background: Previous studies with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) have focused on the cortical representation of limited group of muscles. No attempts have been carried out so far to get simultaneous recordings from hand, forearm and arm with TMS in order to disentangle a ‘functional’ map providing information on the rules orchestrating muscle coupling and overlap. The aim of the present study is to disentangle functional associations between 12 upper limb muscles using two measures: cortical overlapping and cortical covariation of each pair of muscles. Interhemispheric differences and the influence of posture were evaluated as well. Methodology/Principal Findings: TMS mapping studies of 12 muscles belonging to hand, forearm and arm were performed. Findings demonstrate significant differences between the 66 pairs of muscles in terms of cortical overlapping: extremely high for hand-forearm muscles and very low for arm vs hand/forearm muscles. When right and left hemispheres were compared, overlapping between all possible pairs of muscles in the left hemisphere (62.5%) was significantly highe