Imaging the Motor System

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 T, we have focused on motor preparation, defined as the phase in which elemental attributes of subsequent voluntary motor outputs are determined. Previous imaging studies have succeeded in the characterization of premotor and parietal activation patterns during motor preparation, but subcortical activation patterns remained far less well defined. Our studies have provided converging evidence for a specific involvement of the anterior putamen and the adjacent dorsolateral caudate nucleus during motor preparatory phases, in which either temporal or spatial attribu…