@article{MehnertBrunettiSteinbrinketal.2013,
  author    = {Mehnert, Jan and Brunetti, Maddalena and Steinbrink, Jens and Niedeggen, Michael and Dohle, Christian},
  title     = {Effect of a mirror-like illusion on activation in the precuneus assessed with functional near-infrared spectroscopy},
  series = {Journal of biomedical optics},
  volume    = {18},
  journal   = {Journal of biomedical optics},
  number    = {6},
  publisher = {SPIE},
  address   = {Bellingham},
  issn      = {1083-3668},
  doi       = {10.1117/1.JBO.18.6.066001},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Mirror therapy is a therapy to treat patients with pain syndromes or hemiparesis after stroke. However, the underlying neurophysiologic mechanisms are not clearly understood. In order to determine the effect of a mirror-like illusion (MIR) on brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, 20 healthy right-handed subjects were examined. A MIR was induced by a digital horizontal inversion of the subjects' filmed hand. Optodes were placed on the primary motor cortex (M1) and the occipito-parietal cortex (precuneus, PC). Regions of interest (ROI) were defined a priori based on previous results of similar studies and confirmed by the analysis of effect sizes. Analysis of variance of the ROI signal revealed a dissociated pattern: at the PC, the MIR caused a significant inversion of a hemispheric lateralization opposite to the perceived hand, independent of the moving hand. In contrast, activity in M1 showed lateralization opposite to the moving hand, but revealed no mirror effect. These findings extend our understanding on interhemispheric rivalry and indicate that a MIR is integrated into visuomotor coordination similar to normal view, irrespective of the hand that is actually performing the task. (C) 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MehnertAkhrifTelkemeyeretal.2013,
  author    = {Mehnert, Jan and Akhrif, Atae and Telkemeyer, Silke and Rossi, Sonja and Schmitz, Christoph H. and Steinbrink, Jens and Wartenburger, Isabell and Obrig, Hellmuth and Neufang, Susanne},
  title     = {Developmental changes in brain activation and functional connectivity during response inhibition in the early childhood brain},
  series = {Brain and development : official journal of the Japanese Society of Child Neurology},
  volume    = {35},
  journal   = {Brain and development : official journal of the Japanese Society of Child Neurology},
  number    = {10},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0387-7604},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.braindev.2012.11.006},
  pages     = {894 -- 904},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Response inhibition is an attention function which develops relatively early during childhood. Behavioral data suggest that by the age of 3, children master the basic task requirements for the assessment of response inhibition but performance improves substantially until the age of 7. The neuronal mechanisms underlying these developmental processes, however, are not well understood. In this study, we examined brain activation patterns and behavioral performance of children aged between 4 and 6 years compared to adults by applying a go/no-go paradigm during near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) brain imaging. We furthermore applied task-independent functional connectivity measures to the imaging data to identify maturation of intrinsic neural functional networks. We found a significant group x condition related interaction in terms of inhibition-related reduced right fronto-parietal activation in children compared to adults. In contrast, motor-related activation did not differ between age groups. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that in the children's group, short-range coherence within frontal areas was stronger, and long-range coherence between frontal and parietal areas was weaker, compared to adults. Our findings show that in children aged from 4 to 6 years fronto-parietal brain maturation plays a crucial part in the cognitive development of response inhibition.},
  language  = {en}
}