RESUMEN
The cerebral and cerebellar networks involved in execution and mental imagery of the same sequential finger movements performed with the non-dominant hand were assessed by 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging using multivariate model-free analysis. Eight right-handed healthy volunteers successively performed execution and mental imagery tasks (sequential thumb to fingers opposition). The same data were analyzed by using (1) the linear General Model (p < 0.05 corrected), and (2) probabilistic tensorial independent component analysis (TICA). TICA confirmed that overt movement execution and motor imagery share a common network mainly including: premotor, parietal, insular, temporal, cerebellar cortices and putamen. Motor imagery specifically and bilaterally recruited frontopolar, prefrontal, cingulate, medial insula, neocerebellar cortices and precuneus. Non-dominant hand movements induced bilateral brain and cerebellar activation. In comparison with GLM, TICA identified a more widespread and bilateral network especially during motor imagery. TICA revealed that motor imagery also recruits frontopolar precuneal and occipital cortices, rostral M1/S1 corresponding to the hand somatotopic representation, thalamus and cerebellar lobule VIII. TICA also showed concomitant activation of (1) a cerebello-thalamo-cortical network during motor execution, and (2) a control executive network during imagination. TICA therefore allows precise identification of the brain networks collaborating in the same performance. TICA constitutes a valuable tool to assess and improve detection of brain networks engaged in mental imagery in comparison with GLM.