Contralateral coding of imagined body parts in the superior parietal lobe

Abstract

In monkeys, neurons in the superior parietal lobe (area 5) code for spatial position of contralateral body parts by combining visual and somatosensory signals. Using a modified version of the classical mental rotation task, we were able to demonstrate that in humans activation in the contralateral superior parietal lobe could be evoked when mental rotation was combined with motor imagery of hands. These findings show that even in the absence of visual and somatosensory input, information provided by motor imagery suffices to induce contralateral superior parietal lobe monitoring of the imagined limb configuration. This constitutes an important prerequisite for effective imagined motor practice that can be used to improve actual motor performance.