The aim of this experiment was to investigate the imagery effect and the brain areas correlating with it using NIRS (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) and more importantly, to investigate and compare the effects of uni- and contralateral transfer between actual motor execution and motor imagery training. 
Our results revealed that while execution was effective only in case of trained movement, imagery was effective not only in case of trained movement, but also in case of bilateral transfer. The NIRS data revealed that both motor imagery and execution brought about the same level of activation in the supplementary motor area. Apparently, the SMA activation supports the effect of imagery training; however, the correlation between the degree of both after-effects and SMA activation in imagery training was not significant. On the contrary, the correlation be tween SMA activation and ipsilateral training effect was significant in case of the execution group.
These results suggested that both motor execution and imagery have ipsilateral training effects; however, the areas predicted to be associated with the after-effects of training are different. Furthermore, with regard to the contralateral transfer effect, SMA activation did not predict the contralateral transfer effect in both trainings. This might indicate that the areas predicted to be associates with the after-effects of the training and with the intermanual transfer effect were not identical in case of the actual training. These differences in the after-effects between both trainings might be due to the different neural networks involved.

特集 : 小嶋祥三君退職記念
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