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J Neurophysiol 85: 2613-2623, 2001;
0022-3077/01 $5.00
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The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 85 No. 6 June 2001, pp. 2613-2623
Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society

Differential Fronto-Parietal Activation Depending on Force Used in a Precision Grip Task: An fMRI Study

H. Henrik Ehrsson,1,2 Anders Fagergren,1 and Hans Forssberg1

 1Motor Control Laboratory, Department of Woman and Child Health and  2Division of Human Brain Research, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

Ehrsson, H. Henrik, Ers Fagergren, and Hans Forssberg. Differential Fronto-Parietal Activation Depending on Force Used in a Precision Grip Task: An fMRI Study. J. Neurophysiol. 85: 2613-2623, 2001. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggest that the control of fingertip forces between the index finger and the thumb (precision grips) is dependent on bilateral frontal and parietal regions in addition to the primary motor cortex contralateral to the grasping hand. Here we use fMRI to examine the hypothesis that some of the areas of the brain associated with precision grips are more strongly engaged when subjects generate small grip forces than when they employ large grip forces. Subjects grasped a stationary object using a precision grip and employed a small force (3.8 N) that was representative of the forces that are typically used when manipulating small objects with precision grips in everyday situations or a large force (16.6 N) that represents a somewhat excessive force compared with normal everyday usage. Both force conditions involved the generation of time-variant static and dynamic grip forces under isometric conditions guided by auditory and tactile cues. The main finding was that we observed stronger activity in the bilateral cortex lining the inferior part of the precentral sulcus (area 44/ventral premotor cortex), the rostral cingulate motor area, and the right intraparietal cortex when subjects applied a small force in comparison to when they generated a larger force. This observation suggests that secondary sensorimotor related areas in the frontal and parietal lobes play an important role in the control of fine precision grip forces in the range typically used for the manipulation of small objects.







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