fMRI Investigation of Cortical and Subcortical Networks in the Learning of Abstract and Effector-Specific Representations of Motor Sequences

fMRI Results

Visual-normal experiments

All the activations associated with visual-normal experiments during both the early
and late stages are summarized in Table 1 and Figure 4. In visual > follow contrast
(Table 1a), sustained activation was found in the right cerebellum near the right
superior vermis in the anterior lobe (culmen) in both early and late stages. Activations
in other subcortical regions include the ventral striatum, caudate body, anterior and
posterior regions of dorsal putamen, and right hippocampus. Activity in the left
posterior putamen became stronger by the late stage. In addition, activation was also
found in right middle temporal gyrus (BA 39) and extrastriate visual areas (BA 19).
Activations in cortical regions include various regions of the parietal cortex, left
primary motor cortex and dorsal premotor cortex. Activation in the pre-supplementary
motor area (Pre-SMA) was observed in the late stage of visual setting. Activation in
parietal regions was stronger in the left compared to the right hemisphere. The
strength of activation in the left superior parietal cortex, left inferior parietal lobule
(IPL) and left dorsal and ventral premotor areas showed an increasing trend from
early to late stages. A transition of activation was observed from the parietal areas in
the early stage to the parietal-premotor areas in the late stage of visual setting. In the
visual > normal contrast (Table 1 b), activity was found in the early stage in the
superior occipital gyrus as well as in the superior parietal cortex. In the late stage the
activity was in the anterior putamen, inferior parietal cortex and medial frontal gyrus.

Table 1a. Locations of significant BOLD signal in the early and late stages of visual > follow contrast

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