An action-concept processing advantage in a patient with a double motor cortex

• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105831
• Publication Date: 2021-12-16T06:04:04Z
• Authors: Magdalena Miranda; Cecilia Gonzalez ...; Agustina Birba; Alejandra Neely; Felipe Diego Toro...; Evelyng Faure; Gonzalo M. Rojas; Agustín Ibáñez; Adolfo García
• Keywords: SUBCORTICAL BAND HETEROTOPIA; Brain Mapping; Motor Cortex; FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY; Classical Lissencephalies and Subcortical Band Heterotopias; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Semantics; ACTION SEMANTICS; 03 medical and health sciences; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.2; 0302 clinical medicine; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.1; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5; Humans; 10. No inequality; EMBODIED COGNITION; MOTOR CORTEX

Patients with atrophy in motor brain regions exhibit selective deficits in processing action-related meanings, suggesting a link between movement conceptualization and the amount of regional tissue. Here we examine such a relation in a unique opposite model: a rare patient with a double cortex (due to subcortical band heterotopia) in primary/supplementary motor regions, and no double cortex in multimodal semantic regions. We measured behavioral performance in action- and object-concept processing as well and resting-state functional connectivity. Both dimensions involved comparisons with healthy controls. Results revealed preserved accuracy in action and object categories for the patient. However, unlike controls, the patient exhibited faster performance for action than object concepts, a difference that was uninfluenced by general cognitive abilities. Moreover, this pattern was accompanied by heightened functional connectivity between the bilateral primary motor cortices. This suggests that a functionally active double motor cortex may entail action-processing advantages. Our findings offer new constraints for models of action semantics and motor-region function at large.