DEVELOPMENTAL-CHANGES OF CORTICAL AND CEREBELLAR MOTOR CONTROL - A CLINICAL POSITRON-EMISSION-TOMOGRAPHY STUDY WITH CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Functional neuroimaging data regarding the development of motor organi zation in normal children and adolescents are virtually unavailable be cause of ethical concerns. As an alternative approach, we studied chil d and adult lesion patients, focusing on movement of the hand ipsilate ral to the lesion and on brain activations in the contralesional hemis phere. [O-15]-water positron emission tomography was performed during rest and sequential finger-thumb tapping in 10 children (aged 6 to 14 years) and 15 adults (aged 18 to 74 years) with unilateral lesion. We expected more distinct activation/deactivation patterns during movemen t in adults than in children. While there were no group differences in activation of primary and secondary motor cortices, deactivations in nonmotor cortex were significantly more pronounced in adults than in c hildren. This indirectly supports our hypothesis of developmental foca lization of cerebral motor control. Activations in the cerebellum and vermis were significantly stronger in the adults than in the children, possibly reflecting normal developmental patterns.