PHANTOM LIMB IMAGINARY FINGERTAPPING CAUSES PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX ACTIVATION - AN FMRI STUDY

A conventional 1.0 T MR-scanner was used to detect signal intensity ch anges in blood oxygenation level dependent-sensitive acquisitions of m otor cortex during real (left hand) and imaginary (right hand) fingert apping in a man who had his right arm amputated. The subject was instr ucted alternately to move the intact left hand fingers and to imagine tapping his 'fingers' on the amputated right hand. Activated areas wer e detected using a cross-correlation technique with superimposition of highly correlated voxels on to a corresponding high resolution, anato mical 3D image. Activation was observed in the right motor cortex duri ng fingertapping with the intact left hand, and a corresponding activa tion in the left motor cortex for imaginary movements of the amputated right hand fingers.