Congruent unilateral impairments for real and imagined hand movements

Abstract

The chronometry of imagined and actual movements was investigated in a patient with a unilateral lesion of the motor cortex. Motor imagery generated highly accurate estimates of motor performance in a variety of situations, reflecting the hypokinesia of the contralesional hand. There were parallel increases in mental and actual movement times from proximal to distal limb segments. Bimanual movements adopted the slower speed of the impaired hand in both conditions. Imagined motor sequences to the beat of a metronome predicted the maximum speed reached in actual performance. Finally, visually guided pointing showed the same target-size effects in the imagery and movement conditions. The results are in agreement with the hypothesis that common cerebral motor representations are activated when imaging and planning voluntary movements.