Interlimb transfer of grasp orientation is asymmetrical.

One the most fundamental aspects of the human motor system is the hemispheric asymmetry seen in behavioral specialization. Hemispheric dominance can be inferred by a contralateral hand preference in grasping. Few studies have considered grasp orientation in the context of manual lateralization and none has looked at grasp orientation with natural prehension. Thirty right-handed adults performed precision grasps of a cylinder using the thumb and index fingers, and the opposition axis (OA) was defined as the line connecting these two contact points on the cylinder. Subjects made ten consecutive grasps with one hand (primary hand movements) followed by ten grasps with the other hand (trailing movements). Differences between primary and trailing grasps revealed that each hemisphere is capable of programming the orientation of the OA and that primary movements with the right hand significantly influenced OA orientation of the trailing left hand. These results extend the hemispheric dominance of the left hemisphere to the final positions of fingers during prehension.

Orientation of the opposition axis in mentally simulated grasping.

Five normal subjects were tested in a simulated grasping task. A cylindrical container filled with water was placed on the center of a horizontal monitor screen. Subjects used a precision grip formed by the thumb and index finger of their right hand. After a preliminary run during which the container was present, it was replaced by an image of the upper surface of the cylinder appearing on the horizontal computer screen on which the real cylinder was placed during the preliminary run. In each trial the image was marked with two contact points which defined an opposition axis in various orientations with respect to the frontal plane. The subjects' task consisted, once shown a stimulus, of judging as quickly as possible whether the previously experienced action of grasping the container full of water and pouring the water out would be easy, difficult or impossible with the fingers placed according to the opposition axis indicated on the circle. Response times were found to be longer for the grasps judged to be more difficult due to the orientation and position of the opposition axis. In a control experiment, three subjects actually performed the grasps with different orientations and positions of the opposition axis. The effects of these parameters on response time followed the same trends as during simulated movements. This result shows that simulated hand movements take into account the same biomechanical limitations as actually performed movements.

Mental imaging of motor activity in humans.

Motor imagery corresponds to a subliminal activation of the motor system, a system that appears to be involved not only in producing movements, but also in imagining actions, recognising tools and learning by observation, as well as in understanding the behaviour of other people. Recent advances in the field include the use of techniques for mapping brain activity and probing cortical excitability, as well as observation of brain lesioned patients during imaging tasks; these advances provide new insights into the covert aspects of motor activity.

Influence of object position and size on human prehension movements.

Prehension movements of the right hand were recorded in normal subjects using a computerized motion analyzer. The kinematics and the spatial paths of markers placed at the wrist and at the tips of the index finger and thumb were measured. Cylindrical objects of different diameters (3, 6, 9 cm) were used as targets. They were placed at six different positions in the workspace along a circle centered on subject's head axis. The positions were spaced by 10 degrees starting from 10 degrees on the left of the sagittal axis, up to 40 degrees on the right. Both the transport and the grasp components of prehension were influenced by the distance between the resting hand position and the object position. Movement time, time to peak velocity of the wrist and time to maximum grip aperture varied as a function of distance from the object, irrespective of its size. The variability of the spatial paths of wrist and fingers sharply decreased during the phase of the movement prior to contact with the object. This indicates that the final position of the thumb and the index finger is a controlled parameter of visuomotor transformation during prehension. The orientation of the opposition axis (defined as the line connecting the tips of the thumb and the index finger at the end of the movement) was measured. Several different frames of reference were used. When an object-centered frame was used, the orientation of the opposition axis was found to change by about 10 degrees from one object position to the next. By contrast, when a body-centered frame was used (with the head or the forearm as a reference), this orientation was found to remain relatively invariant for different object positions and sizes. The degree of wrist flexion was little affected by the position of the object. This result, together with the invariant orientation of the opposition axis, shows that prehension movements aimed at cylindrical objects are organized so as to minimize changes in posture of the lower arm.

Cerebral activations during number multiplication and comparison: a PET study.

Positron emission tomography was used to examine the cerebral networks underlying number comparison and multiplication in eight normal volunteers. Cerebral blood flow was measured within anatomical regions of interest defined in each subject using magnetic resonance imaging. Three conditions were used: rest with eyes closed, mental multiplication of pairs of arabic digits and larger-smaller comparison of the same pairs. Both multiplication and comparison activated the left and right lateral occipital cortices, the left precentral gyrus, and the supplementary motor area. Beyond these common activations, multiplication activated also the left and right inferior parietal gyri, the left fusiform and lingual gyri, and the right cuneus. Relative to comparison, multiplication also yielded superior activity in the left lenticular nucleus and in Brodmann's area 8, and induced a hemispheric asymmetry in the activation of the precentral and inferior frontal gyri. Conversely, relative to multiplication, comparison yielded superior activity in the right superior temporal gyrus, the left and right middle temporal gyri, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the right inferior frontal gyrus. These results underline the role of bilateral inferior parietal regions in number processing and suggest that multiplication and comparison may rest on partially distinct networks.

Orígenes de la neuropsicología: la influencia del asociacionismo en los neurólogos del siglo XIX / Origins of neuropsychology: influence of associationism on XIX century neurologists

En 1796 la sociedad europea escandalizada vio por las calles de Viena a F. J. Gall medir los atributos del espíritu. Fue el antecedente que llevó a enfrentar a holistas con localizacionistas. Conceptos que, junto al asociacionismo, se opusieron al dualismo cartesiano imperante. La adaptación a la neurología de la teoría de asociación de ideas generó una nueva disciplina, que consideró a la afasia como la disociación o el aislamiento de los centros neurales que contituirían al lenguaje. Esta renovación conceptual fue el primer intento en compatibilizar la neurología con la psicología, constituyéndose en una base de discusión que hoy nos permite estudiar los puntos de pasaje entre ambas, sin que los protagonistas pierdan su identidad

Orígenes de la neuropsicología: la influencia del asociacionismo en los neurólogos del siglo XIX / Origins of neuropsychology: influence of associationism on XIX century neurologists

En 1796 la sociedad europea escandalizada vio por las calles de Viena a F. J. Gall medir los atributos del espíritu. Fue el antecedente que llevó a enfrentar a holistas con localizacionistas. Conceptos que, junto al asociacionismo, se opusieron al dualismo cartesiano imperante. La adaptación a la neurología de la teoría de asociación de ideas generó una nueva disciplina, que consideró a la afasia como la disociación o el aislamiento de los centros neurales que contituirían al lenguaje. Esta renovación conceptual fue el primer intento en compatibilizar la neurología con la psicología, constituyéndose en una base de discusión que hoy nos permite estudiar los puntos de pasaje entre ambas, sin que los protagonistas pierdan su identidad (AU)

The cortical representation of speech.

Abstract In this study, we compare regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) while French monolingual subjects listen to continuous speech in an unknown language, to lists of French words, or to meaningful and distorted stories in French. Our results show that, in addition to regions devoted to single-word comprehension, processing of meaningful stories activates the left middle temporal gyrus, the left and right temporal poles, and a superior prefrontal area in the left frontal lobe. Among these regions, only the temporal poles remain activated whenever sentences with acceptable syntax and prosody are presented.