Supplementary and Premotor Cortical Activation During Manual Dexterity Involving Motor Imagery in Multiple Sclerosis: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

Background: Investigating brain activation during motor imagery (MI) tasks in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) can increase the knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying motor dysfunction in MS and, hopefully, aid in developing improved rehabilitation strategies.

Objective: To investigate brain activation in the supplementary motor area and premotor cortex via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during a hand manipulation task, and comparing MI with actual practice (AP) in pwMS.

Methods: Each subject completed a sequence of 4 consecutive manual dexterity trials wearing an fNIRS device.