Bilateral transfer phenomenon: A functional magnetic resonance imaging pilot study of healthy subjects

Background The bilateral transfer of a motor skill is a physiological phenomenon: the development of a motor skill with one hand can trigger the development of the same ability of the other hand. Objective The purpose of this study was to verify whether bilateral transfer is associated with a specific brain activation pattern using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods The motor task was implemented as the execution of the Nine Hole Peg Test. Fifteen healthy subjects (10 right-handers and five left-handers) underwent two identical fMRI runs performing the motor task with the non-dominant hand. Between the first and the second run, each subject was intensively trained for five minutes to perform the same motor task with the dominant hand. Results Comparing the two functional scans across the pool of subjects, a change of the motor activation pattern was observed. In particular, we observed, in the second run, a change in the activation pattern both in the cerebellum and in the cerebral cortex. We found activations in cortical areas involved in somatosensory integration, areas involved in procedural memory. Conclusions Our study shows, in a small group of healthy subjects, the modification of the fMRI activation pathway of a motor task performed by the non-dominant hand after intensive exercise performing the same task with the dominant hand.