Brain Monitoring Analysis of Voluntary Motion Skills

Brain Monitoring Analysis of Voluntary Motion Skills

  This paper reports experimental analyses of human skills involving voluntary motion control using a mirror drawing test. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to monitor cortical changes in hemoglobin levels in an area covering the primary motor/sensor cortex in the brain. Through the use of a performance index computed from the recorded trajectories of a pen, the performance by participants on a drawing task was evaluated and the skill levels of these participants were classified. The result showed that for a high-performance group, the premotor cortex (PMC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA) were active in the beginning, and then activations decreased subsequently.