Kinematic specificity of cortical reorganization associated with motor training

Katrin Morgen, Nadja Kadom, Lumy Sawaki, Alessandro Tessitore, Joan Ohayon, Joseph Frank, Henry McFarland, Roland Martin, Leonardo G. Cohen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

Motor training consisting of repetition of directionally specific voluntary thumb movements elicits a short-term memory trace that encodes the kinematic details of the practiced motions in the primary motor cortex. Here, we studied activation patterns associated with this form of training using functional magnetic resonance imaging under careful monitoring of motor training kinematics and electromyography. We identified task-specific reductions in activation in contralateral motor cortex, a region that controls executive motor output, as well as somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobule, regions in charge of monitoring motor training kinematics. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that a short training period consisting of repetition of finger motions leads to cortical reorganization characterized by a smaller and more efficient network that is specific for the trained movement direction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1182-1187
Number of pages6
JournalNeuroImage
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2004

Keywords

  • Cortical reorganization
  • Kinematic specificity
  • Motor training

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neurology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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