Imagination versus reality: locomotion in fMRI and PET

Objectives: Comparison of activations and deactivations in the brain locomotor network during mental imagery and practical execution of locomotion. Methods: 1) 16 healthy subjects (age 61.3±7.8y) were trained for the conditions lying, standing, walking and running in order to imagine these conditions on command in 20s sequences with eyes closed while lying supine in a MRI scanner (3T, GE). For functional imaging a T2*-weighted gradient echo multislice sequence was used (EPI, TR 4500ms, TE 60ms, voxel size 3.75*3.75*3.75mm3, matrix 64*64, 34 slices covering the whole brain and the cerebellum, 14 repetitions per s…