scholarly journals Shaping the Sensory–Motor Network by Short-Term Unresolvable Sensory–Motor Mismatch

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten M. Klingner ◽  
Fabian Kattlun ◽  
Lena Krolopp ◽  
Elisabeth Jochmann ◽  
Gerd F. Volk ◽  
...  

Learning from errors as the main mechanism for motor adaptation has two fundamental prerequisites: a mismatch between the intended and performed movement and the ability to adapt motor actions. Many neurological patients are limited in their ability to transfer an altered motor representation into motor action due to a compromised motor pathway. Studies that have investigated the effects of a sustained and unresolvable mismatch over multiple days found changes in brain processing that seem to optimize the potential for motor learning (increased drive for motor adaptation and a weakening of the current implementation of motor programs). However, it remains unclear whether the observed effects can be induced experimentally and more important after shorter periods. Here, we used task-based and resting-state fMRI to investigate whether the known pattern of cortical adaptations due to a sustained mismatch can be induced experimentally by a short (20 min), but unresolvable, sensory–motor mismatch by impaired facial movements in healthy participants by transient facial tapping. Similar to long-term mismatch, we found plastic changes in a network that includes the striatal, cerebellar and somatosensory brain areas. However, in contrast to long-term mismatch, we did not find the involvement of the cerebral motor cortex. The lack of the involvement of the motor cortex can be interpreted both as an effect of time and also as an effect of the lack of a reduction in the motor error. The similar effects of long-term and short-term mismatch on other parts of the sensory–motor network suggest that the brain-state caused by long-term mismatch can be (at least partly) induced by short-term mismatch. Further studies should investigate whether short-term mismatch interventions can be used as therapeutic strategy to induce an altered brain-state that increase the potential for motor learning.

2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 1486-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy D. Cohen ◽  
Manuel A. Castro-Alamancos

Learning of motor skills may occur as a consequence of changes in the efficacy of synaptic connections in the primary motor cortex. We investigated if learning in a reaching task affects the excitability, short-term plasticity, and long-term plasticity of horizontal connections in layers II–III of the motor cortex. Because training in this task requires animals to be food-deprived, we compared the trained animals with similarly food-deprived untrained animals and normal controls. The results show that the excitability, short-term plasticity, and long-term plasticity of the studied horizontal connections were unaffected by motor learning. However, stress-related effects produced by food deprivation and handling significantly enhanced the expression of long-term depression in these pathways. These results are compatible with the hypothesis that the acquisition of a complex motor skill produces bi-directional changes in synaptic strength that are distributed throughout the complex neural networks of motor cortex, which remains synaptically balanced during learning. The results are incompatible with the idea that learning causes large unidirectional changes in the population response of these neural networks, which may occur instead during certain behavioral states, such as stress.


10.1038/264 ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaheen Hamdy ◽  
John C. Rothwell ◽  
Qasim Aziz ◽  
Krishna D. Singh ◽  
David G. Thompson

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen B. E. Wolff ◽  
Raymond Ko ◽  
Bence P. Ölveczky

AbstractThe acquisition and execution of learned motor sequences are mediated by a distributed motor network, spanning cortical and subcortical brain areas. The sensorimotor striatum is an important cog in this network, yet how its two main inputs, from motor cortex and thalamus respectively, contribute to its role in motor learning and execution remains largely unknown. To address this, we trained rats in a task that produces highly stereotyped and idiosyncratic motor sequences. We found that motor cortical input to the sensorimotor striatum is critical for the learning process, but after the behaviors were consolidated, this corticostriatal pathway became dispensable. Functional silencing of striatal-projecting thalamic neurons, however, disrupted the execution of the learned motor sequences, causing rats to revert to behaviors produced early in learning and preventing them from re-learning the task. These results show that the sensorimotor striatum is a conduit through which motor cortical inputs can drive experience-dependent changes in subcortical motor circuits, likely at thalamostriatal synapses.


2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1908-1915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ennio Iezzi ◽  
Antonio Suppa ◽  
Antonella Conte ◽  
Pietro Li Voti ◽  
Matteo Bologna ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (6S) ◽  
pp. 1712-1725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Steinberg Lowe ◽  
Adam Buchwald

Purpose This study investigated whether whole nonword accuracy, phoneme accuracy, and acoustic duration measures were influenced by the amount of feedback speakers without impairment received during a novel speech motor learning task. Method Thirty-two native English speakers completed a nonword production task across 3 time points: practice, short-term retention, and long-term retention. During practice, participants received knowledge of results feedback according to a randomly assigned schedule (100%, 50%, 20%, or 0%). Changes in nonword accuracy, phoneme accuracy, nonword duration, and initial-cluster duration were compared among feedback groups, sessions, and stimulus properties. Results All participants improved phoneme and whole nonword accuracy at short-term and long-term retention time points. Participants also refined productions of nonwords, as indicated by a decrease in nonword duration across sessions. The 50% group exhibited the largest reduction in duration between practice and long-term retention for nonwords with native and nonnative clusters. Conclusions All speakers, regardless of feedback schedule, learned new speech motor behaviors quickly with a high degree of accuracy and refined their speech motor skills for perceptually accurate productions. Acoustic measurements may capture more subtle, subperceptual changes that may occur during speech motor learning. Supplemental Materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5116324


2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 2948-2955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilsaan M. Joiner ◽  
Maurice A. Smith

Extensive theoretical, psychophysical, and neurobiological work has focused on the mechanisms by which short-term learning develops into long-term memory. Better understanding of these mechanisms may lead to the ability to improve the efficiency of training procedures. A key phenomenon in the formation of long-term memory is the effect of over learning on retention—discovered by Ebbinghaus in 1885: when the initial training period in a task is prolonged even beyond what is necessary for good immediate recall, long-term retention improves. Although this over learning effect has received considerable attention as a phenomenon in psychology research, the mechanisms governing this process are not well understood, and the ability to predict the benefit conveyed by varying degrees of over learning does not yet exist. Here we studied the relationship between the duration of an initial training period and the amount of retention 24 h later for the adaptation of human reaching arm movements to a novel force environment. We show that in this motor adaptation task, the amount of long-term retention is predicted not by the overall performance level achieved during the training period but rather by the level of a specific component process in a multi-rate model of short-term memory formation. These findings indicate that while multiple learning processes determine the ability to learn a motor adaptation, only one provides a gateway to long-term memory formation. Understanding the dynamics of this key learning process may allow for the rational design of training and rehabilitation paradigms that maximize the long-term benefit of each session.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarek K. Rajji ◽  
Shi-Kai Liu ◽  
Marina V. Frantseva ◽  
Benoit H. Mulsant ◽  
Jessica Thoma ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esperanza M Anaya ◽  
David B Pisoni ◽  
William G Kronenberger

Previous research has shown that musicians have enhanced visual-spatial abilities and sensory-motor skills. As a result of their long-term musical training and their experience-dependent activities, musicians may learn to associate sensory information with fine motor movements. Playing a musical instrument requires musicians to rapidly translate musical symbols into specific sensory-motor actions while also simultaneously monitoring the auditory signals produced by their instrument. In this study, we assessed the visual-spatial sequence learning and memory abilities of long-term musicians. We recruited 24 highly trained musicians and 24 nonmusicians, individuals with little or no musical training experience. Participants completed a visual-spatial sequence learning task as well as receptive vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory tasks. Results revealed that musicians have enhanced visual-spatial sequence learning abilities relative to nonmusicians. Musicians also performed better than nonmusicians on the vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning measures. Additional analyses revealed that the large group difference observed on the visual-spatial sequencing task between musicians and nonmusicians remained even after controlling for vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory abilities. Musicians’ improved visual-spatial sequence learning may stem from basic underlying differences in visual-spatial and sensory-motor skills resulting from long-term experience and activities associated with playing a musical instrument.


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