Mirrored, imagined and executed movements differentially activate sensorimotor cortex in amputees with and without phantom limb pain.

Extended viewing of movements of the intact hand in a mirror as well as motor imagery has been shown to decrease pain in phantom pain patients. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural correlates of mirrored, imagined and executed hand movements in 14 upper extremity amputees - 7 with phantom limb pain (PLP) and 7 without phantom limb pain (non-PLP) and 9 healthy controls (HC). Executed movement activated the contralateral sensorimotor area in all three groups but ipsilateral cortex was only activated in the non-PLP and HC group. Mirrored movements activated the sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the hand seen in the mirror in the non-PLP and the HC but not in the PLP. Imagined movement activated the supplementary motor area in all groups and the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex in the non-PLP and HC but not in the PLP. Mirror- and movement-related activation in the bilateral sensorimotor cortex in the mirror movement condition and activation in the sensorimotor cortex ipsilateral to the moved hand in the executed movement condition were significantly negatively correlated with the magnitude of phantom limb pain in the amputee group. Further research must identify the causal mechanisms related to mirror treatment, imagined movements or movements of the other hand and associated changes in pain perception.

Context conditioning and extinction in humans: differential contribution of the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate the role of the hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in a contextual conditioning and extinction paradigm provoking anxiety. Twenty-one healthy persons participated in a differential context conditioning procedure with two different background colours as contexts. During acquisition increased activity to the conditioned stimulus (CS+) relative to the CS- was found in the left hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The amygdala, insula and inferior frontal cortex were differentially active during late acquisition. Extinction was accompanied by enhanced activation to CS+ vs. CS- in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The results are in accordance with animal studies and provide evidence for the important role of the hippocampus in contextual learning in humans. Connectivity analyses revealed correlated activity between the left posterior hippocampus and dACC (BA32) during early acquisition and the dACC, left posterior hippocampus and right amygdala during extinction. These data are consistent with theoretical models that propose an inhibitory effect of the mPFC on the amygdala. The interaction of the mPFC with the hippocampus may reflect the context-specificity of extinction learning.

A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study of painful electric stimulation.

Together with a detailed behavioral analysis, simultaneous measurement of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) permits a better elucidation of cortical pain processing. We applied painful electrical stimulation to 6 healthy subjects and acquired fMRI simultaneously with an EEG measurement. The subjects rated various stimulus properties and the individual affective state. Stimulus-correlated BOLD effects were found in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas (SI and SII), the operculum, the insula, the supplementary motor area (SMA proper), the cerebellum, and posterior parts of the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC). Perceived pain intensity was positively correlated with activation in these areas. Higher unpleasantness rating was associated with suppression of activity in areas known to be involved in stimulus categorization and representation (ventral premotor cortex, PCC, parietal operculum, insula) and enhanced activation in areas initiating, propagating, and executing motor reactions (ACC, SMA proper, cerebellum, primary motor cortex). Concordant dipole localizations in SI and ACC were modeled. Using the dipole strength in SI, the network was restricted to SI. The BOLD signal change in ACC was positively correlated to the individual dipole strength of the source in ACC thus revealing a close relationship of BOLD signal and possibly underlying neuronal electrical activity in SI and the ACC. The BOLD signal change decreased in SI over time. Dipole strength of the ACC source decreased over the experiment and increased during the stimulation block suggesting sensitization and habituation effects in these areas.

The attentional blink is susceptible to concurrent perceptual processing demands.

In a rapid serial visual presentation stream processing of a first target (T1) impairs detection or identification of a second target (T2) that appears within 500 ms after T1. This effect characterizes the so-called attentional blink (AB). To evaluate contemporary information-processing accounts of the AB phenomenon in terms of the underlying processing mechanisms the present study examined the potential influence of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect. To this end, T1 contrast and T1 response requirements were systematically varied across four experiments. Experiment 1 ruled out a mere sensory basis of the contrast manipulation on T2 performance. When only T2 had to be reported (Experiment 2) an AB effect occurred that was slightly modulated by T1 contrast. When report of both T1 and T2 was required in a standard AB task (Experiment 3), the magnitude of the AB depended to a larger extent on stimulus contrast, and it increased further when speeded T1 choice responses were additionally required (Experiment 4). On the basis of the present impact of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect we conclude that processing limitations cause the AB phenomenon. We discuss such limitations in terms of perceptual (T1 consolidation) and central (response selection) bottleneck processes.

Simultaneous electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging of primary and secondary somatosensory cortex in humans after electrical stimulation.

Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements were performed in six healthy subjects to determine the representation of stimulation of the right thumb in somatosensory cortex. In all subjects EEG-based dipole locations could be determined in primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortex. The stimulus-induced blood oxygenation level dependent response of the fMRI showed deviations of 23.5 mm (standard deviation, SD = 6.9) for S1 and 15.7 mm (SD = 3.5) for S2 cortex. fMRI constrained dipole searches lead to higher residual variances. The data show that simultaneous EEG and fMRI measurements of somatosensory activity are feasible and yield reliable and valid results.