Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
ASM Science Journal, 2010;4(2):158-172.
MyJurnal

Abstract

In this multiple-subject study, intrinsic couplings between the primary motor (M1) and supplementary motor areas (SMA) were investigated. Unilateral (UNIright and UNIleft) self-paced tapping of hand fingers were performed to activate M1 and SMA. The intrinsic couplings were analysed using statistical parametric mapping, dynamic causal modeling (DCM) and Bayesian model analysis. Brain activation observed for UNIright and UNIleft showed contralateral and ipsilateral involvement of M1 and SMA. Ten full connectivity models were constructed with right and left M1 and SMA as processing centres. DCM indicated that all subjects prefer M1 as the intrinsic input for UNIright and UNIleft as indicated by a large group Bayes factor (GBF). Positive evidence ratio (PER) that showed strong evidence of Model 3 and Model 6 against other models in at least 12 out of 16 subjects, supported GBF results. The GBF and PER results were later found to be consistent with that of BMS for group studies with high expected posterior probability and exceedance probability. It was concluded that during unilateral finger tapping, the contralateral M1 would act as the input centre which in turn triggered the propagation of signals to SMA in the same hemisphere and to M1 and SMA in the opposite hemisphere.