Functional magnetic resonance imaging with passive wrist movements in healthy elder people

Objective To explore the similarities and differences between dominant and subdominant wrist movement in healthy elder people with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Methods Thirty right-handed healthy elder subjects were scanned while they were performing the passive movement tasks with their right and left wrists,and SPM2 was adopted to process the fMRI data and to localize the functional areas. Results Voluntary movements of the right dominant hand mainly activated contralateral sensorimotor cortex,contralateral premotor area (PMC),bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA),bilateral posterior parietal cortex,and ipsilateral cerebellum,whereas movements of the left/subdominant hand additionally elicited activation in ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex,contralateral cerebellum. Moreover,activation volumes in SMA,contralateral premotor area and ipsilateral cerebellum during movements of the subdominant hand were significantly larger than those during movements of the dominant hand. Conclusion A large set of structures in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum was involved in passive movements. Movements of the subdominant hand were more dependent on higher control areas,such as SMA,PMC and ipsilateral cerebellum comparing to movements of the dominant hand.