Neuronal mechanism of mirror movements caused by dysfunction of the motor cortex

摘要: Mirror movements (MMs) are often observed in hemiplegic patients after stroke, and supposed to reflect some aspects of their recovery process. Therefore, understanding the neuronal mechanism MMs is important, but from currently available evidence human case studies, has not been clearly understood. Here we found that monkeys, reversible inactivation right primary motor cortex (M1) by microinjection muscimol, were induced hand during voluntary grasping with left hand, which partially affected injection. Using this animal model, investigated origin dysfunction M1. We thus completely abolished additional blockade Electromyogram (EMG) activities homonymous muscle pairs bilateral hands co-activated. Detailed analysis EMG suggested enhanced activation M1, led was directly driven activity whose likely be Rather, present finding common drive M1 higher-order structures reduction commissural inhibition side concomitantly cortico-motoneuronal pathway intact side, MMs.