Furthermore, many MEG studies have not shown evidence of activities in motor-related cortical areas outside the primary sensory and motor areas contralateral movement following PMs (Xiang et al. 1997; Lange et al. 2001; Alary et al. 2002; Woldag et al.

2003). In this study, we recorded MRCFs following voluntary finger movement and SEFs following passive finger movement in order to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical examine in detail the differences in cortical activation patterns and source localizations between active and passive movements. We hypothesized that the time course of cortical activities in SMA, PPC, and S2 following PM would be recorded by MEG using a multiple dipole analysis system. Methods Participants Thirteen Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical healthy, right-handed volunteers (age, 22–48 years; mean age, 30.8 years; 12 men, 1 woman) participated in this study. All subjects

gave their written informed consent. This study was approved by the ethics committee at the Niigata University of Health and Welfare. Experimental method The subjects were seated comfortably inside a magnetically shielded room (Tokin Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Ltd., Sendai, Japan). All subjects performed the active and passive movement tasks with the right index finger at the metacarpophalangeal (MP) joint. MRCFs elicited by active finger extension and SEFs elicited by passive finger extension and by median nerve stimulation were recorded. For MEG measurements, the subjects rested their arms comfortably on the armrest of a PD173074 wooden table, with their hands in full pronation. The right index Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical finger was placed on a small acrylic plate with a light-emitting diode (LED) sensor on the wooden table. The index finger was set at approximately 40º of the MP joint flexion with full extension of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, and the MP and PIP joints of the third to fifth fingers were kept flexed. The subjects were instructed to extend their index finger with a brisk movement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to reach an adjustable line set up approximately 3 cm above the plate, after completely relaxing the upper limb muscles, at self-paced intervals of approximately 5 sec. The extended

position from the active movement was sustained Thalidomide for a moment. When the fingertip was detached from the plate by index finger extension, the LED was cut off, and a trigger signal input averaged the MEG signals online. For the PM task, an experimenter sat in the magnetically shielded room to the side of the subject. The experimenter passively raised surgical tape (Keeppore25; Nichiban, Tokyo, Japan) wrapped around the subject’s index finger with a sharp movement and sustained the index finger in the extended position for a moment, thereby moving the finger with approximately the same motion as that in the active movement task. The interval used for the PM task was approximately 5 sec, which was same as that used for the active movement task. The subjects had several training trials in order to learn to relax their finger and forearm during the PM.