Study On The Function In Motor Subregion Of Human Cingulate Cortex Verificated By HCP Task FMRI Data

ObjectiveThe human cingulate cortex(CC)is one of the most complex brain areas in structures,connections and functions.It is found that CC is closely related to human motor function.Although recent studies in the parcellation of CC and the function of CC subregion have made great achievements,the nomenclature and scope of each CC subregion by different scholars are not in consistent.Besides most research in the function of CC subregion were based on architecture cytoarchitectonic or functional connectivity,and reliability of the CC parcellation needs validation.This study investigated neural substrates of the processing of the motor tasks in the cingulate cortex based on Human Connectome Project(HCP)data,so as to verificate the reliability of the parcellation of CC motor subregion.MethodsIt is hypothesized that CC may be involved in motor processing based our previous study.In this study,95 healthy volunteers were adopted from HCP data.Participants are presented with visual cues that ask them to either tap their left or right fingers,or squeeze their left or right toes,or move their tongue.Activity estimates were computed for the preprocessed functional time series from each run using a General Linear Model.Predictors were convolved with a double gamma “canonical” hemodynamic response function to generate the main model regressors in the task design.In group level statistical analysis,we took CC as the region of interest,and we did one sample t-test for individual level results respectively to show activation cartogram during left or right fingers tapping,left or right toes squeezing and tongue moving.The activation maps with statistical significance by the five stimuli were overlaid in CC template.To clear the accuracy of parcellation of the cingulate motor subregion by previous research,this experiment took the intersection of the activation map and cingulate subregions,and calculated voxel number and voxel percentage in each CC subregion.Results 1.Participants exhibited increased activation in the bilateral posterior midcingulate cortex(pMCC),the left dosal anterior midcingulate cortex(daMCC)and the right ventral anterior midcingulate cortex(vaMCC)during tongue moving.The number of activated voxels in the pMCC accounted for large proportion in the total activation map.While the proportion of activate voxels in the rest subregions were small.2.Participants exhibited increased activation in the right pMCC during left fingers tapping.3.Participants exhibited increased activation in the left pMCC,the left daMCC and the left vaMCC during right fingers tapping.The number of activated voxels in the pMCC accounted for large proportion in the total activation map.While the proportion of activate voxels in the rest subregions were small.4.Participants exhibited increased activation in the bilateral pMCC,the bilateral vaMCC and the left daMCC during left toes squeezing.The number of activated voxels in the pMCC accounted for large proportion in the total activation map.While the proportion of activate voxels in the rest subregions were small.5.Participants exhibited increased activation in the bilateral pMCC,the bilateral vaMCC and the bilateral daMCC during right toes squeezing.The number of activated voxels in the pMCC accounted for large proportion in the total activation map.While the proportion of activate voxels in the rest subregions were small.Conclusion 1.The activation of the middle cingulate cortex subregion in processing the motor tasks verified that the parcellation for cingulate moter subregion in previous study is reliable.2.The large proportion of activate voxels in the pMCC during motor tasks indicates that the pMCC is the main area of CC responsible for controlling the simple movements of human body.3.The small proportion of activate voxels in the vaMCC or daMCC during motor tasks suggests that these two subregions may participate in regulating the complex body movement.