Age dependency of activation in the visuomotor system during observation and imagination of motor acts

Introduction: The following study was performed to establish a paradigm for use in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to evaluate stroke patients before and after videotherapy. We tried to determine, which paradigm might be most suitable and whether or not activation in young and elderly volunteers is different. Method and Patients: 26 healthy controls (13 males, 13 females) participated in the study. Mean age in the young group (n=13) was 26.2 (20–36) and 63 (45–79) in the elderly group (n=13). Paradigm: Six active conditions were compared: Volunteers were exposed to images or short video clips of mot…