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Abstract #0288

Probing somatotopic organization of motor cortex using a novel shoulder motor task and multi-echo fMRI

Neha A Reddy1,2, Michelle C Medina1,2, Ana Maria Acosta2, Ahalya Mandana2, Julius PA Dewald1,2, and Molly G Bright1,2
1Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States, 2Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Task/Intervention Based fMRI, fMRI (task based)

Motivation: Evolving views of motor cortex organization highlight a need for diverse, controlled motor-task fMRI studies to probe motor systems; while distal hand-grasp and finger-tapping tasks are commonly implemented with fMRI, proximal (e.g., shoulder) motor tasks have rarely been studied.

Goal(s): We aimed to perform the first systematic fMRI study of controlled shoulder-abduction tasks, using multi-echo acquisition and analysis techniques.

Approach: We used a novel device to study motor activity in healthy individuals who performed a shoulder-abduction task at varying torques.

Results: While group-level cortical activity aligned with the traditional homunculus, subject-level results demonstrated individual variation.

Impact: We demonstrate the feasibility of studying controlled, proximal upper extremity tasks with whole-brain multi-band multi-echo fMRI; this technique has the potential to elucidate group-level and subject-specific motor organization in healthy individuals and clinical populations with motor impairment.

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Keywords