Locomotor and postural changes over age: a fMRI study

Objectives: Characterization of supraspinal locomotor and postural regions in a group of normal persons of different age during imagined locomotion and stance in fMRI. Methods: 60 normal subjects (age: 24–78y) were trained for the conditions lying, standing, walking and running in order to imagine these conditions 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 (EPI, TR 4500ms, TE 60ms, voxel size 3.75*3.75*3.75mm3, matrix 64*64) was used to aquire 34 slices covering the whole brain and cerebellum. Each condit…