Deep brain activation patterns involved in virtual gait without and with a doorway: An fMRI study.

ABSTRACT: The human gait program involves many brain areas such as motor cortices, cerebellum, basal ganglia, brainstem, and spinal cord. The mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR), which contains the pedunculopontine (PPN) and cuneiform (CN) nuclei, is thought to be one of the key supraspinal gait generators. In daily life activities, gait primarily occurs in complex conditions, such as through narrow spaces, or while changing direction or performing motor or cognitive tasks. Here, we aim to explore the activity of these subcortical brain areas while walking through narrow spaces, using functional MRI in healthy volunteers and designing a virtual reality task mimicking walking down a hallway, without and with an open doorway to walk through. As a control, we used a virtual moving walkway in the same

SUBMITTER: Marchal V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6802850 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature