Changes in Cortical Activity During Real and Imagined Movements: an ERP Study

Abstract

This study aims to compare the topographic distribution of cortical activation between real and imagined movement through event-related potential (ERP). We are specifically interested in identifying, the topographic distribution of activated areas, the intensity of activated areas, and the temporal occurrence of these activations on preparation and motor response phases. Twelve healthy and right handed subjects were instructed to perform a task under real and imagery conditions. The task was performed simultaneously to electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. When compared the conditions, we found a statistically significant difference in favor of real condition revealed by performing an unpaired t-test with multiple corrections of Bonferroni, demonstrating negative activity on electrode C3 and positive activity on the electrode C4 only in motor response phase. These findings revealed similar functional connections established during real and imagery conditions, suggesting that there are common neural substrate and similar properties of functional integration shared by conditions.

Keywords: Cortical activity; ERP; event-related potential; imagined and real movements..

Fig. (1)

Time window of EEG data processing.

Fig. (2)

Representation of ERP topographic distribution, in the scalp, at the time window 382.5 ms between ME and MI conditions.