Parietal area BA7 integrates motor programs for reaching, grasping, and bimanual coordination.

Unlabelled: Skillful interaction with the world requires that the brain uses a multitude of sensorimotor programs and subroutines, such as for reaching, grasping, and the coordination of the two body halves. However, it is unclear how these programs operate together. Networks for reaching, grasping, and bimanual coordination might converge in common brain areas.

Paired-Pulse Parietal-Motor Stimulation Differentially Modulates Corticospinal Excitability across Hemispheres When Combined with Prism Adaptation.

Rightward prism adaptation ameliorates neglect symptoms while leftward prism adaptation (LPA) induces neglect-like biases in healthy individuals. Similarly, inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) induces neglect-like behavior, whereas on the left PPC it ameliorates neglect symptoms and normalizes hyperexcitability of left hemisphere parietal-motor (PPC-M1) connectivity. Based on this analogy we hypothesized that LPA increases PPC-M1 excitability in the left hemisphere and decreases it in the right one.

Patient educational technologies and their use by patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.

Background: Two urology practices in Calgary, Canada use patient educational technology (PET) as a core component of their clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to determine how patients interact with PET designed to inform them about their treatment options for clinically localized prostate cancer.

Methods: A PET library was developed with 15 unique prostate-related educational modules relating to diagnosis, treatment options, and potential side effects.

The time course for visual extinction after a 'virtual' lesion of right posterior parietal cortex.

Our understanding of the attentional networks in the human brain largely relies on neuropsychological studies in patients with lesions to the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), particularly in the right hemisphere, that may cause severe disruptions of attentional functions. However, lesion studies only capture a point in time when the dysfunctions caused by the damage have triggered a chain of adaptive responses in the brain. To disentangle deficits and ensuing cortical plasticity, here we examined the time course for one's ability to detect objects in the visual periphery after an inhibitory continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) protocol to the left or right PPC.

Bilateral primary motor cortex circuitry is modulated due to theta burst stimulation to left dorsal premotor cortex and bimanual training.

Motor preparatory and execution activity is enhanced after a single session of bimanual visuomotor training (BMT). Recently, we have shown that increased primary motor cortex (M1) excitability occurs when BMT involves simultaneous activation of homologous muscles and these effects are enhanced when BMT is preceded by intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) to the left dorsal premotor cortex (lPMd). The neural mechanisms underlying these modulations are unclear, but may include interhemispheric interactions between homologous M1s and connectivity with premotor regions.

The effects of TMS over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on trans-saccadic memory of multiple objects.

Humans typically make several rapid eye movements (saccades) per second. It is thought that visual working memory can retain and spatially integrate three to four objects or features across each saccade but little is known about this neural mechanism. Previously we showed that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the posterior parietal cortex and frontal eye fields degrade trans-saccadic memory of multiple object features (Prime, Vesia, & Crawford, 2008, Journal of Neuroscience, 28(27), 6938-6949; Prime, Vesia, & Crawford, 2010, Cerebral Cortex, 20(4), 759-772.

Timing of response differentiation in human motor cortex during a speeded Go/No-Go task.

We explored the brain's ability to quickly prevent a pre-potent but unwanted motor response. To address this, transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered over the motor cortex (hand representation) to probe excitability changes immediately after somatosensory cues prompted subjects to either move as fast as possible or withhold movement. Our results showed a difference in motor cortical excitability 90ms post-stimulus contingent on cues to either promote or prevent movement.

Selective modulation of left primary motor cortex excitability after continuous theta burst stimulation to right primary motor cortex and bimanual training.

Bimanual movement training (BMT) enhances the excitability of human preparatory premotor and primary motor (M1) cortices. We have shown that activity in M1 is enhanced after BMT involving simultaneous activation of homologous muscles (in-phase). Potential neural mechanisms underlying this effect could be input from premotor areas (i.

The validity and reliability of the neurogenic bladder symptom score.

Purpose: The neurogenic bladder symptom score is a tool to measure urinary symptoms and consequences in patients with acquired or congenital neurogenic bladder. We describe score validity and reliability.

Materials And Methods: Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess item variability and subscale structure.

Modulation of left primary motor cortex excitability after bimanual training and intermittent theta burst stimulation to left dorsal premotor cortex.

Bimanual visuomotor movement training (BMT) enhances the excitability of human preparatory premotor and primary motor (M1) cortices compared to unimanual movement. This occurs when BMT involves mirror symmetrical movements of both upper-limbs (in-phase) but not with non-symmetrical movements (anti-phase). The neural mechanisms mediating the effect of BMT is unclear, but may involve interhemispheric connections between homologous M1 representations as well as the dorsal premotor cortices (PMd).

The right anterior intraparietal sulcus is critical for bimanual grasping: a TMS study.

Grasping with 2 limbs in opposition to one another is older than the hand, yet the neural mechanisms for bimanual grasps remain unclear. Similar to unimanual grasping, bimanual grasping may require regions in the parietal cortex that use visual object-feature information to find matching stable grasp points on the object. The localization of matching points is computationally expensive, so it might make sense for the signals to converge in a single cortical area.

The role of areas MT+/V5 and SPOC in spatial and temporal control of manual interception: an rTMS study.

Manual interception, such as catching or hitting an approaching ball, requires the hand to contact a moving object at the right location and at the right time. Many studies have examined the neural mechanisms underlying the spatial aspects of goal-directed reaching, but the neural basis of the spatial and temporal aspects of manual interception are largely unknown. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate the role of the human middle temporal visual motion area (MT+/V5) and superior parieto-occipital cortex (SPOC) in the spatial and temporal control of manual interception.

Human parietal and primary motor cortical interactions are selectively modulated during the transport and grip formation of goal-directed hand actions.

Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) constitutes a critical cortical node in the sensorimotor system in which goal-directed actions are computed. This information then must be transferred into commands suitable for hand movements to the primary motor cortex (M1). Complexity arises because reach-to-grasp actions not only require directing the hand towards the object (transport component), but also preshaping the hand according to the features of the object (grip component).

Specialization of reach function in human posterior parietal cortex.

Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays an important role in the planning and control of goal-directed action. Single-unit studies in monkeys have identified reach-specific areas in the PPC, but the degree of effector and computational specificity for reach in the corresponding human regions is still under debate. Here, we review converging evidence spanning functional neuroimaging, parietal patient and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies in humans that suggests a functional topography for reach within human PPC.

Cortical mechanisms for trans-saccadic memory and integration of multiple object features.

Constructing an internal representation of the world from successive visual fixations, i.e. separated by saccadic eye movements, is known as trans-saccadic perception.

Specificity of human parietal saccade and reach regions during transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Single-unit recordings in macaque monkeys have identified effector-specific regions in posterior parietal cortex (PPC), but functional neuroimaging in the human has yielded controversial results. Here we used on-line repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to determine saccade and reach specificity in human PPC. A short train of three TMS pulses (separated by an interval of 100 ms) was delivered to superior parieto-occipital cortex (SPOC), a region over the midposterior intraparietal sulcus (mIPS), and a site close to caudal IPS situated over the angular gyrus (AG) during a brief memory interval while subjects planned either a saccade or reach with the left or right hand.

TMS over human frontal eye fields disrupts trans-saccadic memory of multiple objects.

We recently showed that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right parietal eye fields disrupts memory of object features and locations across saccades. We applied TMS over the frontal eye fields (FEF) as subjects compared the feature details of visual targets presented either within a single eye fixation (Fixation Task) or across a saccade (Saccade Task). TMS pulses were randomly delivered at one of 3 time intervals around the time of the saccade, or at equivalent times in the Fixation Task.

Correlations of selected psychomotor and visuomotor tests with initial Dynavision performance.

The current study investigated the relationship between Dynavision scores for 36 men and 52 women (M age = 20.5 yr.) and performance on six conventional psychomotor tests which presumably tap similar psychomotor abilities and visuomotor skills.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation over human dorsal-lateral posterior parietal cortex disrupts integration of hand position signals into the reach plan.

Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has been implicated in the integration of visual and proprioceptive information for the planning of action. We previously reported that single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over dorsal-lateral PPC perturbs the early stages of spatial processing for memory-guided reaching. However, our data did not distinguish whether TMS disrupted the reach goal or the internal estimate of initial hand position needed to calculate the reach vector.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation over posterior parietal cortex disrupts transsaccadic memory of multiple objects.

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays a role in spatial updating of goals for eye and arm movements across saccades, but less is known about its role in updating perceptual memory. We reported previously that transsaccadic memory has a capacity for storing the orientations of three to four Gabor patches either within a single fixation (fixation task) or between separate fixations (saccade task). Here, we tested the role of the PPC in transsaccadic memory in eight subjects by simultaneously applying single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right and left PPC, over several control sites, and comparing these to behavioral controls with no TMS.

Hemispheric asymmetry in memory-guided pointing during single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of human parietal cortex.

Dorsal posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has been implicated through single-unit recordings, neuroimaging data, and studies of brain-damaged humans in the spatial guidance of reaching and pointing movements. The present study examines the causal effect of single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left and right dorsal posterior parietal cortex during a memory-guided "reach-to-touch" movement task in six human subjects. Stimulation of the left parietal hemisphere significantly increased endpoint variability, independent of visual field, with no horizontal bias.