scholarly journals Compensatory Limb Use and Behavioral Assessment of Motor Skill Learning Following Sensorimotor Cortex Injury in a Mouse Model of Ischemic Stroke

Author(s):  
Abigail L. Kerr ◽  
Kelly A. Tennant
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Espenhahn ◽  
Holly E Rossiter ◽  
Bernadette C M van Wijk ◽  
Nell Redman ◽  
Jane M Rondina ◽  
...  

Abstract Recovery of skilled movement after stroke is assumed to depend on motor learning. However, the capacity for motor learning and factors that influence motor learning after stroke have received little attention. In this study, we first compared motor skill acquisition and retention between well-recovered stroke patients and age- and performance-matched healthy controls. We then tested whether beta oscillations (15–30 Hz) from sensorimotor cortices contribute to predicting training-related motor performance. Eighteen well-recovered chronic stroke survivors (mean age 64 ± 8 years, range: 50–74 years) and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were trained on a continuous tracking task and subsequently retested after initial training (45–60 min and 24 h later). Scalp electroencephalography was recorded during the performance of a simple motor task before each training and retest session. Stroke patients demonstrated capacity for motor skill learning, but it was diminished compared to age- and performance-matched healthy controls. Furthermore, although the properties of beta oscillations prior to training were comparable between stroke patients and healthy controls, stroke patients did show less change in beta measures with motor learning. Lastly, although beta oscillations did not help to predict motor performance immediately after training, contralateral (ipsilesional) sensorimotor cortex post-movement beta rebound measured after training helped predict future motor performance, 24 h after training. This finding suggests that neurophysiological measures such as beta oscillations can help predict response to motor training in chronic stroke patients and may offer novel targets for therapeutic interventions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (50) ◽  
pp. 19715-19723 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Padmashri ◽  
B. C. Reiner ◽  
A. Suresh ◽  
E. Spartz ◽  
A. Dunaevsky

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Glangetas ◽  
Pedro Espinosa ◽  
Camilla Bellone

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease notably characterized by progressive motor symptoms. Although the loss of Medium Spiny Neurons (MSNs) in the striatum has been associated with motor deficits, premanifest patients already present cognitive deficiencies and show early signs of motor disabilities. Here in a YAC128 HD mouse model, we identified impairment in motor skill learning at the age of 11 to 14 weeks. Using optogenetic stimulation, we found that excitatory synaptic transmission from motor cortex to MSNs located in the Dorso Lateral part of the Striatum (DLS) is altered. Using single pellet reaching task, we observed that while motor skill learning is accompanied by a dynamic change in AMPA/NMDA ratio in wild type mice, this form of synaptic plasticity does not occur in YAC128 mice. This study not only proposes new meaningful insight the synaptopathic mechanisms of HD, but also highlights that deficit in motor skill learning dependent synaptic plasticity at motor cortex to DLS synapses represents an early biomarker for Huntington's disease.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle V. Thompson ◽  
Janet L. Utschig ◽  
Mikaela K. Vaughan ◽  
Marc V. Richard ◽  
Benjamin A. Clegg

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3843
Author(s):  
Yifan Shi ◽  
Kelong Cai ◽  
Hao Zhu ◽  
Xiaoxiao Dong ◽  
Xuan Xiong ◽  
...  

Cross-sectional studies suggest that motor skill learning is associated with working memory (WM) and white matter integrity (WMI). However, it has not been established whether motor skill learning improves WM performance, and information on its neural mechanisms have not been clearly elucidated. Therefore, this study compared WM and WMI across time points prior to and following football juggling learning, in early adulthood (18–20 years old), relative to a control group. Study participants in the experimental group were subjected to football juggling for 10 weeks while participants in the control category went on with their routine life activities for the same period of time and were not involved in the learning-related activities. Data on cognitive measurements and that from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were collected before and after learning. There was a significant improvement in WM performance of the experimental group after motor learning, although no improvement was observed in the control group. Additionally, after learning, DTI data revealed a significant increase in functional anisotropy (FA) in the genu of corpus callosum (GOCC) and the right anterior corona radiata (R.ACR) in the experimental group. Moreover, the better WM associated with football juggling learning was correlated to a higher FA. Mediation analysis suggested that FA in the GOCC acts as a mediation variable between football juggling learning and WM. These findings show that motor skill learning improves the WM and remodels WMI in early adulthood. With a particular emphasis on the importance of WMI in motor skill learning and WM, this study also revealed the possible neural mechanisms mediated by WMI.


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