Abstract

The motor recovery mechanism of a 21-year-old male monoparetic patient with cerebral palsy, who had complained of a mild weakness on his right hand since infancy, was examined using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). The patient showed mild motor impairment on the right hand. MRI located the main lesion on the left precentral knob of the brain. fMRI was performed on this patient as well as 8 control subjects using the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent technique at 1.5 T with a standard head coil. The motor activation task consisted of finger flexion- extension exercises at 1 Hz cycles. TMS was carried out using a round coil. The anterior portion of the coil was applied tangentially to the scalp at a 1.0 cm separation. Magnetic stimulation was carried out with the maximal output. The Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) from both Abductor Pollicis Brevis muscles (APB) were obtained simultaneously. fMRI revealed that the unaffected (right) primary sensori-motor cortex (SM1), which was centered on precentral knob, was activated by the hand movements of the control subjects as well as by the unaffected (left) hand movements of the patient. However, the affected (right) hand movements of the patient activated the medial portion of the injured precentral knob of the left SM1. The optimal scalp site for the affected (right) APB was located at 1 cm medial to that of the unaffected (left) APB. When the optimal scalp site was stimulated, the MEP characteristics from the affected (right) APB showed a delayed latency, lower amplitude, and a distorted figure compared with that of the unaffected (left) APB. Therefore, the motor function of the affected (right) hand was shown to be reorganized in the medial portion of the injured precentral knob.

• Keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging;Motor recovery;Mapping;Magnetic stimulation;