OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate differences in cortical activation between individuals with and without chronic ankle instability (CAI) during a dorsi-plantarflexion task and further explore its association with sensorimotor function. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 62 participants were recruited, including 31 adults with CAI and 31 healthy adults. Sensorimotor functions, including joint position sense and force sense, were tested using absolute error associated with joint position reproduction and force reproduction tasks. A block design was used to collect task-state functional magnetic resonance imaging by using a custom-built, MRI-compatible device during a dorsi-plantarflexion task. RESULTS Individuals with CAI showed significantly worse joint position sense and force sense in all four movement directions than those without CAI. CAI is significantly associated with lower cortical activation in the sensorimotor network, mainly including the right postcentral gyrus, right supplementary motor area (SMA) and left precentral gyrus. A weaker functional connectivity was found between the right putamen cluster and the left precentral gyrus in CAI. Greater associations between plantarflexion position sense with cortical activation were observed in the left precentral gyrus, bilateral putamen, and right SMA in CAI, but not in healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with CAI had worse sensorimotor function, experienced lower task-related cortical activation in the sensorimotor network, and had a weaker resting-state functional connectivity between the putamen with the left precentral gyrus compared with healthy controls. Plantarflexion position sense was negatively associated with cortical activation in the left precentral gyrus, bilateral putamen and right SMA in individuals with CAI, but not in healthy controls. These findings suggested that impaired sensorimotor function partly corresponded to potential neurophysiological alterations in individuals with CAI.

中文翻译：

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背跖屈任务期间的皮质激活及其与踝关节不稳定中感觉运动功能的关联。


目的 本研究旨在探讨在背跖屈任务期间患有和不患有慢性踝关节不稳定 （CAI） 的个体之间皮质激活的差异，并进一步探讨其与感觉运动功能的关系。方法 在这项横断面研究中，招募了 62 名参与者，包括 31 名成人 CAI 和 31 名健康成人。使用与关节位置再现和力再现任务相关的绝对误差来测试感觉运动功能，包括关节位置感和力感。在背跖屈任务期间，通过使用定制的 MRI 兼容设备，采用块状设计来收集任务状态的功能性磁共振成像。结果 CAI 患者在所有 4 个运动方向上的关节位置觉和力感均显著差于无 CAI 的患者。CAI 与感觉运动网络中的下皮层激活显著相关，主要包括右侧中央后回、右侧辅助运动区 （SMA） 和左侧中央前回。在 CAI 中，右侧壳核簇和左侧中央前回之间的功能连接较弱。在 CAI 中，在左侧中央前回、双侧壳核和右侧 SMA 中观察到跖屈位置觉与皮质激活之间的关联更大，但在健康对照中未观察到。结论 与健康对照组相比，CAI 患者的感觉运动功能较差，感觉运动网络中任务相关皮层激活较低，壳核与左中央前回之间的静息态功能连接较弱。 在 CAI 患者中，跖屈位置觉与左侧中央前回、双侧壳核和右侧 SMA 的皮质激活呈负相关，但在健康对照中则不然。这些发现表明，感觉运动功能受损部分对应于 CAI 个体的潜在神经生理学改变。