A compensatory mechanism in unilateral akinetic-rigid syndrome: an fMRI study

The motor mechanisms of a patient with unilateral hand clumsiness in the early stages of akinetic-rigid syndrome were assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Movements of the unaffected hand produced activation in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) and ipsilateral SMC and superior parietal lobule (SPL). The affected hand activated the bilateral SMCs, supplementary motor areas, and SPLs. We speculated that the bilateral activation indicated recruitment of a pre-existing bilaterally organized large-scale neural network to perform the motor task.