Brain activations underlying different patterns of performance improvement during early motor skill learning
Abstract
Motor learning plays a central role in daily life and in neurorehabilitation. Several forms of motor learning have been described, among which motor skill learning, i.e. reaching a superior level of performance (a skill) through a shift of the speed/accuracy trade-off. During the first stage of learning a visuomotor skill, we observed differential patterns of evolution of the speed/accuracy trade-off in normal subjects. Half of the subjects rapidly achieved successful motor skill learning with an early shift of the speed/accuracy trade-off leading to a superior level of performance (shift pattern). The other subjects attained only minimal global improvement due to a converse evolution of speed and accuracy (i.e. a respect of the speed/accuracy trade-off: fit pattern). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to explore the neural substrates underlying these differential patterns during the first stage of motor skill learning in normal subjects. Twenty right-handed normal subjects performed an implicit visuomotor learning task with their non-dominant hand. The task ("circuit game") consisted in learning to navigate a pointer along a circuit as quickly and accurately as possible using a fMRI-compatible mouse. Velocit...Continue Reading
References
Distinct contribution of the cortico-striatal and cortico-cerebellar systems to motor skill learning
Citations
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