Multi-modal Mapping of the human dorsal premotor cortex based on function and connectivity

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Functionally, the dorsal pre-motor cortex (dPMC) of the human brain has been implicated in a large range of functions. In particular, it plays a central role in the planning, preparation and execution of hand and eye movements. In addition, the dPMC is also consistently activated in tasks referring to (spatial) attention, inhibitory processes and working memory paradigms. This raises the question, how these different functions are organized within the region of the dPMC. While it has already been suggested that the dPMC may contain a mosaic-like internal differentiation, little is yet known about the location, function and connectivity of specific areas within the broader dPMC region. We here will address this question in the proposed project by using innovative techniques for meta-analytic functional mapping and connectivity-based parcellation for delineating the organization of this region. The functional differentiation of the dPMC is investigated through a series of quantitative meta-analysis of functional imaging studies on cognitive and motor functions that have been associated with this particular region... Together, these should allow a comprehensive (given the variety of assessed functions) and reliable (given the meta-analytic pooling over many individual experiments) functional characterization of the dPMC and its internal differentiation. Approaches for connectivity-based parcellation (CBP) have gained in importance in recent years and become a broad spectrum of very promising tools. They have, however, not yet been used in a comprehensive multi-modal fashion, testing the effect of basing such analysis on various aspects of brain connectivity. In the proposed project, we will thus perform such a multi-modal approach to analyze local variations in anatomical and functional connectivity as well as regional (co-) activation profiles, by creating a multi-modal map of connectivity patterns in the region of the dPMC. The synopsis of the functional and connectivity-based parcellation should provide a comprehensive characterization of the dPMC, which will serve as an important reference for future physiological and clinical imaging studies.