Cortical activation during foot movements: II effect of movement rate and side.

Cerebral control of foot movements has received limited study. Functional MRI compared slow with rapid foot movement, and right (dominant) with left foot movement. Brain activation during right, as compared with left, foot movement was larger, with higher amplitude task-related motor cortex signal change, and higher laterality index.

Brain motor system function after chronic, complete spinal cord injury.

Most therapies under development to restore motor function after spinal cord injury (SCI) assume intact brain motor functions. To examine this assumption, 12 patients with chronic, complete SCI and 12 controls underwent functional MRI during attempted, and during imagined, right foot movement, each at two force levels. In patients with SCI, many features of normal motor system function were preserved, however, several departures from normal were apparent: (i) volume of activation was generally much reduced, e.