Interhemispheric Parietal-Frontal Connectivity Predicts the Ability to Acquire a Nondominant Hand Skill

Abstract

Introduction: After chronic impairment of the right dominant hand, some individuals are able to compensate with increased performance with the intact left nondominant hand. This process may depend on the nondominant (right) hemisphere's ability to access dominant (left) hemisphere mechanisms. To predict or modulate patients' ability to compensate with the left hand, we must understand the neural mechanisms and connections that underpin this process. Methods: We studied 17 right-handed healthy adults who underwent resting-state functional connectivity (FC) magnetic resonance imaging scans before 10 days of training on a left-hand precision drawing task. We sought to identify right-hemisphere areas where FC from left-hemisphere seeds (primary motor cortex, intraparietal sulcus [IPS], inferior parietal lobule) would predict left-hand skill learning or magnitude. Results: Left-hand skill learning was predicted by convergent FC from left primary motor cortex and left IPS onto the same small region (0.31 cm³) in the right superior parietal lobule (SPL). Discussion: For patients who must compensate with the left hand, the right SPL may play a key role in integrating left-hemisphere mechanisms that typically control the right hand. Our study provides the first model of how interhemispheric functional connections in the human brain may support compensation after chronic injury to the right hand.

Keywords: fMRI; functional connectivity; laterality of motor control; learning; movement.

FIG. 1.

Precision drawing task. Five sample stimuli shown, out of 45 possible.

FIG. 2.

Right-hemisphere areas where FC with left M1 seed predicted NDH smoothness learning. FC, functional connectivity; NDH, nondominant hand. Color images are available online.

FIG. 3.

Right-hemisphere areas where FC with left IPS seed predicted NDH smoothness learning. IPS, intraparietal sulcus. Color images are available online.

FIG. 4.

Learning-predictive interhemispheric connectivity from left M1 and left IPS converges on the same area of right SPL. SPL, superior parietal lobule. Color images are available online.

FIG. 5.

Areas where FC differed between left M1 seed and left IPS seed. Z-scores indicate correlation with “M1 minus IPS,” so positive values = M1, negative values = IPS. Color images are available online.

FIG. 6.

Model of interhemispheric connectivity supporting learning of precision skill with the left NDH.