Lower extremity Interlimb coordination associated brain activity in young female athletes: A biomechanically instrumented neuroimaging study

Abstract Bilateral sensorimotor coordination is required for everyday activities, such as walking and sitting down/standing up from a chair. Sensorimotor coordination functional neuroimaging (fMRI) paradigms (e.g., stepping, cycling) increase activity in the sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area, insula, and cerebellum. Although these paradigms are designed to assay coordination, performance measures are rarely collected simultaneously with fMRI. Therefore, we aimed to identify neural correlates of lower extremity coordination using a bilateral, in‐phase, multi‐joint coordination task with concurrent MRI‐compatible 3D motion analysis. Seventeen female athletes (15.0 ± 1.4 years) completed a bilateral, multi‐joint lower‐extremity coordination task during brain fMRI. Interlimb coordination was quantified from kinematic data as the correlation between peak‐to‐peak knee flexion cycle time between legs. Standard preprocessing and whole‐brain analyses for task‐based fMRI were completed in FSL, controlling for total movement cycles and neuroanatomical differences, with interlimb coordination as a covariate of interest. A clusterwise multi‐comparison correction was applied at z > 3.1 and p < .05. Less interlimb coordination during the task was associated with greater activation in the posterior cingulate and precuneus ( z max = 6.41, p < .01) and the lateral occipital cortex ( z max = 7.55, p = .02). The inability to maintain interlimb coordination alongside greater activity in attention‐ and sensory‐related brain regions may indicate a failed compensatory neural strategy to execute the task. Alternatively, greater activity could be secondary to reduced afferent acuity that may be elevating central demand to maintain in‐phase lower extremity motor coordination. Future research aiming to improve sensorimotor coordination should consider interventional approaches uniquely capable of promoting adaptive neuroplasticity to enhance motor control.