Abstract #1122

Pinto S, Mancini L, Jahanshahi M, Thornton J, Brehmer R, Limousin-Dowsey P, Yousry T

Concurrent verbal and manual task performance has been less studied than single tasks. Nevertheless, they are of great interest as they are implicated in complex human behaviour. In this study, cerebral activation profiles during speech-production (SP), hand-movement (HM) and combined SP/HM tasks have been compared. Our results suggest that the simultaneous motor execution of the same motor program with the hand and the orofacial areas, combined the cortical motor and cerebellar activations in addition to other regions such as the SMA. The added complexity of the combined task requires an additional motor coordination probably mediated by the SMA.