Tomonori Kihara

Tomonori Kihara


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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22 May 2021 in Brain Sciences
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
TITomotaka Ito
Tomotaka Ito
MKmasanori kamiue
masanori kamiue
TKTomonori Kihara
Tomonori Kihara
YIYuta Ishimaru
Yuta Ishimaru
DKDaisuke Kimura
Daisuke Kimura
ATAkio Tsubahara
Akio Tsubahara
To advance our knowledge on the motor system during cyclic gait observation, we aimed to explore the effects of gaze fixation on corticospinal excitability evaluated by single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Fourteen healthy adult volunteers watched a video of a demonstrator walking on a treadmill under three different conditions: (1) observing the right lower limb, (2) observing the right ankle joint, and (3) observing the right lower limb on a video focused on the area below the knee. In each condition, motor-evoked potentials elicited by TMS in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle were measured synchronously with the demonstrator’s initial contact and toe-off points. Directing visual attention to the ankle joint and focusing on its movements caused corticospinal facilitation in the TA muscle compared with watching the video without any visual fixation. In addition, phase-dependent differences in corticospinal excitability between the initial contact and toe-off points were only detected when the visibility range was restricted to below the knee. Our findings indicated that motor resonance during cyclic gait observation is modulated by visual attention and motion visibility in different activation manners.