2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Mechanism of Motor Cortical Reorgationization
| Project/Area Number |
14207054
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Cerebral neurosurgery
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Niigata University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
FUJII Yukihiko Niigata University, Brain Research Institute, Associate Professor, 脳研究所, 助教授 (40283014)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
NAKADA Tsutomu Niigata University, Brain Research Institute, Professor, 脳研究所, 教授 (50281720)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2005
|
| Keywords | brain function / cortical reorganization / functional MRI / hemiparesis / high magnetic field / diffusion tensor analysis / 運動機能 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The objectives of this study were to assess the mechanisms of motor functional recovery and cortical reorganization, and thereby to elucidate the cortical motor function from the neuroscientical viewpoint in order to develop novel therapy of motor dysfunction. This study was performed and designed as a part of stepwise long-term projects to systemically assess cortical motor function utilizing high-field MRI systems, enabling advanced analyses comparable to invasive animal experiments despite clinical studies. Awing to our general belief that human functional research projects should be designed on the basis of human-specific functions, detailed analyses of motor organization based on "handedness" and "language" are ongoing in our laboratory. Brain mapping analyses by functional MRI and axonal connectivity analyses by diffusion tensor imaging were utilized to carried out these studies.
The functional analyses of normal subjects, patients with subcortical infarction, those with brain tum
… More
or disclosed a number of new findings by the end of the term of the project. For example, handedness is determined in the prenatal term or the early stage of neonates, and a handedness-specific area located within the premotor cortex of the nondominant hemisphere. Coerced training of the nondominant hand during the early stages of an individual's development results in cortical reorganization identical to that shown in subcortical patients recovered from paresis of the dominant hand. Unnecessarily strong activation of supplementary motor areas may potentially disturb motor functional recovery in those with subcortical infarction. In the patients with supratentorial brain tumor, cerebellar reorganization frequently occurs, and cortical reorganization in the ipsilateral sensorimotor are associated with hemiparesis.
The information obtained from the analyses of handedness subsequently encouraged us to shift to and focus on detailed analyses of motor functions relevant to speech production and stuttering, one of speech disorders. The study provided several important findings. In execution of motor function associated with speech production, human primary motor cortex possesses definite hemispheric specialization similar to that observed for the higher order cortices, i.e., the dominant primary motor area was more functionally segregated compared to the other motor area. The study also found that the synchronicity in bihemispheric primary motor cortices was important for speech production, and that the synchronicity was extremely reduced in subjects with stuttering compared to fluent speakers. Less
|
Research Products
(59 results)
