Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
4
pubmed:dateCreated
1998-5-27
pubmed:abstractText
The cortical representation of five simple hand and finger movements in the human motor cortex was determined in left- and right-handed people with whole-head magnetoencephalography. Different movements were found to be represented by spatially segregated dipolar sources in primary motor cortex. The spatial arrangement of neuronal sources for digit and wrist movements was nonsomatotopic and varied greatly between subjects. As an estimator of hand area size in primary motor cortex, we determined the smallest cuboid volume enclosing the five dipole sources within the left and right hemisphere of each subject. Interhemispheric comparison revealed a significant increase of this volume in primary motor cortex opposite to the preferred hand. This asymmetry was due to a greater spatial segregation of neuronal dipole generators subserving different hand and finger actions in the dominant hemisphere. Mean Euclidean distances between dipole sources for different movements were 10.7 +/- 3.5 mm in the dominant and 9.4 +/- 3.5 mm in the nondominant hemisphere (mean +/- SD; P = 0. 01, two-tailed t-test). The expansion of hand representation in primary motor cortex could not simply be attributed to a greater number of pyramidal cells devoted to each particular movement as inferred from current source amplitudes. The degree of hemispheric asymmetry of hand area size in the primary motor cortex was correlated highly with the asymmetry of hand performance in a standardized handedness test (r = -0.76, P < 0.01). These results demonstrate for the first time a biological correlate of handedness in human motor cortex. The expansion of hand motor cortex in the dominant hemisphere may provide extra space for the cortical encoding of a greater motor skill repertoire of the preferred hand.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Apr
pubmed:issn
0022-3077
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
79
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
2149-54
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1998
pubmed:articleTitle
Handedness and asymmetry of hand representation in human motor cortex.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, D-40225 Duesseldorf, Germany.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Clinical Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't