Background: Locomotion, which is one of the most basic motor functions, is critical for performing various daily-life activities. Despite its essential function, assessment of brain activity during lower-limb movement is still limited because of the constraints of existing brain imaging methods.
New method: Here, we describe an MR-compatible, cylindrical treadmill device that allows participants to perform stepping movements on an MRI scanner table. The device was constructed from wood and all of the parts were handmade by the authors.
Results: We confirmed the MR-compatibility of the device by evaluating the temporal signal-to-noise ratio of 64 voxels of a phantom during scanning. Brain activity was measured while twenty participants turned the treadmill with feet in sync with metronome sounds. The rotary speed of the cylinder was encoded by optical fibers. The post/pre-central gyrus and cerebellum showed significant activity during the movements, which was comparable to the activity patterns reported in previous studies. Head movement on the y- and z-axes was influenced more by lower-limb movement than was head movement on the x-axis. Among the 60 runs (3 runs × 20 participants), head movement during two of the runs (3.3%) was excessive due to the lower-limb movement.
Comparison with existing methods: Compared to MR-compatible devices proposed in the previous studies, the advantage of this device may be simple structure and replicability to realize stepping movement with a supine position.
Conclusions: Collectively, our results suggest that the treadmill device is useful for evaluating lower-limb-related neural activity.
Keywords: Brain; Gait; Lower-limb movement; Magnetic resonance-compatible device; Treadmill; fMRI.
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