Left Prefrontal Cortex Contributes to Motor Imagery: A Pilot Study

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the motor cortex during motor imagery results in increased amplitudes of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in muscles specific to the imagined movement. Functional MRI studies demonstrate that motor imagery involves a widespread neural network including prefrontal and parietal areas. The purpose of this pilot TMS study was to explore whether the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an active part of the motor imagery network. MEPs were recorded in 5 healthy subjects in tibialis anterior (TA) muscles during the imagined right ankle dorsiflexion while the neural processes in the left PFC were disturbed by a single TMS pulse 300ms prior to the leg area stim…