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Khatibi A, Vahdat S, Lungu O, Finsterbusch J, Büchel C, Cohen-Adad J, Marchand-Pauvert V, Doyon J. Brain-spinal cord interaction in long-term motor sequence learning in human: An fMRI study. Neuroimage 2022; 253:119111. [PMID: 35331873 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2021] [Revised: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The spinal cord is important for sensory guidance and execution of skilled movements. Yet its role in human motor learning is not well understood. Despite evidence revealing an active involvement of spinal circuits in the early phase of motor learning, whether long-term learning engages similar changes in spinal cord activation and functional connectivity remains unknown. Here, we investigated spinal-cerebral functional plasticity associated with learning of a specific sequence of visually-guided joystick movements (sequence task) over six days of training. On the first and last training days, we acquired high-resolution functional images of the brain and cervical cord simultaneously, while participants practiced the sequence or a random task while electromyography was recorded from wrist muscles. After six days of training, the subjects' motor performance improved in the sequence compared to the control condition. These behavioral changes were associated with decreased co-contractions and increased reciprocal activations between antagonist wrist muscles. Importantly, early learning was characterized by activation in the C8 level, whereas a more rostral activation in the C6-C7 was found during the later learning phase. Motor sequence learning was also supported by increased spinal cord functional connectivity with distinct brain networks, including the motor cortex, superior parietal lobule, and the cerebellum at the early stage, and the angular gyrus and cerebellum at a later stage of learning. Our results suggest that the early vs. late shift in spinal activation from caudal to rostral cervical segments synchronized with distinct brain networks, including parietal and cerebellar regions, is related to progressive changes reflecting the increasing fine control of wrist muscles during motor sequence learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Khatibi
- McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada; Centre of Precision Rehabilitation for Spinal Pain (CPR Spine), University of Birmingham, UK; Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, UK.
| | - Shahabeddin Vahdat
- McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada; Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Ovidiu Lungu
- McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada; Department of psychiatry and addictology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Jurgen Finsterbusch
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
| | - Christian Büchel
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
| | - Julien Cohen-Adad
- NeuroPoly Lab, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Functional Neuroimaging Unit, CRIUGM, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Mila Quebec AI Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | | | - Julien Doyon
- McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Centre de recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
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Dickins DSE, Sale MV, Kamke MR. Intermanual transfer and bilateral cortical plasticity is maintained in older adults after skilled motor training with simple and complex tasks. Front Aging Neurosci 2015; 7:73. [PMID: 25999856 PMCID: PMC4423452 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2014] [Accepted: 04/23/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Intermanual transfer refers to the phenomenon whereby unilateral motor training induces performance gains in both the trained limb and in the opposite, untrained limb. Evidence indicates that intermanual transfer is attenuated in older adults following training on a simple ballistic movement task, but not after training on a complex task. This study investigated whether differences in plasticity in bilateral motor cortices underlie these differential intermanual transfer effects in older adults. Twenty young (<35 years-old) and older adults (>65 years) trained on a simple (repeated ballistic thumb abduction) and complex (sequential finger-thumb opposition) task in separate sessions. Behavioral performance was used to quantify intermanual transfer between the dominant (trained) and non-dominant (untrained) hands. The amplitude of motor-evoked potentials induced by single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to investigate excitability changes in bilateral motor cortices. Contrary to predictions, both age groups exhibited performance improvements in both hands after unilateral skilled motor training with simple and complex tasks. These performance gains were accompanied by bilateral increases in cortical excitability in both groups for the simple but not the complex task. The findings suggest that advancing age does not necessarily influence the capacity for intermanual transfer after training with the dominant hand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daina S E Dickins
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD, Australia
| | - Martin V Sale
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD, Australia
| | - Marc R Kamke
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD, Australia
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Bagce HF, Saleh S, Adamovich SV, Krakauer JW, Tunik E. Corticospinal excitability is enhanced after visuomotor adaptation and depends on learning rather than performance or error. J Neurophysiol 2012. [PMID: 23197454 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00304.2012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
We used adaptation to high and low gains in a virtual reality setup of the hand to test competing hypotheses about the excitability changes that accompany motor learning. Excitability was assayed through changes in amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in relevant hand muscles elicited with single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). One hypothesis is that MEPs will either increase or decrease, directly reflecting the effect of low or high gain on motor output. The alternative hypothesis is that MEP changes are not sign dependent but rather serve as a marker of visuomotor learning, independent of performance or visual-to-motor mismatch (i.e., error). Subjects were required to make flexion movements of a virtual forefinger to visual targets. A gain of 1 meant that the excursions of their real finger and virtual finger matched. A gain of 0.25 ("low gain") indicated a 75% reduction in visual versus real finger displacement, a gain of 1.75 ("high gain") the opposite. MEP increases (>40%) were noted in the tonically activated task-relevant agonist muscle for both high- and low-gain perturbations after adaptation reached asymptote with kinematics matched to veridical levels. Conversely, only small changes in excitability occurred in a control task of pseudorandom gains that required adjustments to large errors but in which learning could not accumulate. We conclude that changes in corticospinal excitability are related to learning rather than performance or error.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamid F Bagce
- Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science, School of Health Related Professions, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey 07107, USA
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