Neurobiology of Nondeclarative Memory: A Selected Review on Motor

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Sara Cavaco
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition ◽  
Differential Contribution ◽  
Experience Difficulty

There is extensive evidence and it is widely recognized that motor skill learning is spared in patients with dense amnesia. However, the neural substrates of motor skill learning are a continuing topic of research and a current matter of debate. This review focuses on the differential contribution of the striatum and the cerebellum to learning skills that require either motor sequence or motor adaptation. A brief overview of the current knowledge helps understand why certain patient populations, such as patients with Parkinson's disease and patients with cerebellar ataxia, experience difficulty with motor skill acquisition.

The Effect of Aimed Movements in Sequenced Motor Skill Learning Motor Skill Acquisition Using Aiming and the SRTT

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

New roles for dopamine in motor skill acquisition: Lessons from primates, rodents, and songbirds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alynda N Wood
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition ◽  
Model Free ◽  
Species Comparisons

Motor learning is a core aspect of human life, and appears to be ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom. Dopamine, a neuromodulator with a multifaceted role in synaptic plasticity, may be a key signaling molecule for motor skill learning. Though typically studied in the context of reward-based associative learning, dopamine appears to be necessary for some types of motor learning. Mesencephalic dopamine structures are highly conserved among vertebrates, as are some of their primary targets within the basal ganglia, a subcortical circuit important for motor learning and motor control. With a focus on the benefits of cross-species comparisons, this review examines how "model-free" and "model-based" computational frameworks for understanding dopamine's role in associative learning may be applied to motor learning. The hypotheses that dopamine could drive motor learning either by functioning as a reward prediction error, through passive facilitating of normal basal ganglia activity, or through other mechanisms are examined in light of new studies using humans, rodents, and songbirds. Additionally, new paradigms that could enhance our understanding of dopamine's role in motor learning by bridging the gap between the theoretical literature on motor learning in humans and other species are discussed.

scholarly journals Increasing motor skill acquisition by driving theta-gamma coupling

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haya Akkad ◽  
Joshua Dupont-Hadwen ◽  
Amba Frese ◽  
Irena Tetkovic ◽  
Liam Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Gamma Activity ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Adaptive Process ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
The Brain

AbstractSkill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Hippocampal learning is closely associated with gamma activity, which is amplitude-modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity. Whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill acquisition in non-hippocampal tasks is unknown. Here we addressed this question by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex to modulate theta-gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a non-hippocampal-dependent task. We demonstrated, and then replicated, a significant improvement in skill acquisition with theta-gamma tACS, which outlasted the stimulation by an hour. Our results suggest that theta-gamma activity may be a common mechanism for learning across the brain and provides a putative novel intervention for optimising functional improvements in response to training or therapy.

Primary motor cortex disinhibition during motor skill learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Coxon ◽  
Nicola M. Peat ◽  
Winston D. Byblow
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Intracortical Inhibition ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Pinch Grip

Motor learning requires practice over a period of time and depends on brain plasticity, yet even for relatively simple movements, there are multiple practice strategies that can be used for skill acquisition. We investigated the role of intracortical inhibition in the primary motor cortex (M1) during motor skill learning. Event-related transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to assess corticomotor excitability and inhibition thought to involve synaptic and extrasynaptic γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Short intracortical inhibition (SICI) was assessed using 1- and 2.5-ms interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Participants learned a novel, sequential pinch-grip task on a computer in either a repetitive or interleaved practice structure. Both practice structures showed equivalent levels of motor performance at the end of acquisition and at retention 1 wk later. There was a novel task-related modulation of 1-ms SICI. Repetitive practice elicited a greater reduction of 1- and 2.5-ms SICI, i.e., disinhibition, between rest and task acquisition, compared with interleaved practice. These novel findings support the use of a repetitive practice structure for motor learning because the associated effects within M1 have relevance for motor rehabilitation.

scholarly journals Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: a consensus and critical position paper

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan R Buch ◽  
Emiliano Santarnecchi ◽  
Andrea Antal ◽  
Jan Born ◽  
Pablo A Celnik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Critical Position ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition

AbstractMotor skills are required for activities of daily living. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied in association with motor skill learning has been investigated as a tool for enhancing training effects in health and disease. Here, we review the published literature investigating whether tDCS can facilitate the acquisition and retention of motor skills and adaptation. A majority of reports focused on the application of tDCS with the anode placed over the primary motor cortex (M1) during motor skill acquisition, while some evaluated tDCS applied over the cerebellum during adaptation of existing motor skills. Work in multiple laboratories is under way to develop a mechanistic understanding of tDCS effects on different forms of learning and to optimize stimulation protocols. Efforts are required to improve reproducibility and standardization. Overall, reproducibility remains to be fully tested, effect sizes with present techniques are moderate (up to d= 0.5) (Hashemirad, Zoghi, Fitzgerald, & Jaberzadeh, 2016) and the basis of inter-individual variability in tDCS effects is incompletely understood. It is recommended that future studies explicitly state in the Methods the exploratory (hypothesis-generating) or hypothesis-driven (confirmatory) nature of the experimental designs. General research practices could be improved with prospective pre-registration of hypothesis-based investigations, more emphasis on the detailed description of methods (including all pertinent details to enable future modeling of induced current and experimental replication) and use of post-publication open data repositories. A checklist is proposed for reporting tDCS investigations in a way that can improve efforts to assess reproducibility.

scholarly journals Reactivation-induced motor skill learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (23) ◽  
pp. e2102242118
Author(s):  
Jasmine Herszage ◽  
Haggai Sharon ◽  
Nitzan Censor
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skill ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Test Session ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Learning Gains ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Memory Reactivation ◽  
Neurological Injuries

Learning motor skills commonly requires repeated execution to achieve gains in performance. Motivated by memory reactivation frameworks predominantly originating from fear-conditioning studies in rodents, which have extended to humans, we asked the following: Could motor skill learning be achieved by brief memory reactivations? To address this question, we had participants encode a motor sequence task in an initial test session, followed by brief task reactivations of only 30 s each, conducted on separate days. Learning was evaluated in a final retest session. The results showed that these brief reactivations induced significant motor skill learning gains. Nevertheless, the efficacy of reactivations was not consistent but determined by the number of consecutive correct sequences tapped during memory reactivations. Highly continuous reactivations resulted in higher learning gains, similar to those induced by full extensive practice, while lower continuity reactivations resulted in minimal learning gains. These results were replicated in a new independent sample of subjects, suggesting that the quality of memory reactivation, reflected by its continuity, regulates the magnitude of learning gains. In addition, the change in noninvasive brain stimulation measurements of corticospinal excitability evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation over primary motor cortex between pre- and postlearning correlated with retest and transfer performance. These results demonstrate a unique form of rapid motor skill learning and may have far-reaching implications, for example, in accelerating motor rehabilitation following neurological injuries.

scholarly journals Increasing human motor skill acquisition by driving theta-gamma coupling

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haya Akkad ◽  
Joshua Dupont-Hadwen ◽  
Edward Kane ◽  
Carys Evans ◽  
Liam Barrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Gamma Activity ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
The Brain

Skill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Some learning paradigms, particularly in the memory domain, are closely associated with gamma activity that is amplitude-modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity, but whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill learning is unknown. Here we addressed this question by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex to modulate theta-gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a non-hippocampal-dependent task. We demonstrated, and then replicated, a significant improvement in skill acquisition with theta-gamma tACS, which outlasted the stimulation by an hour. Our results suggest that theta-gamma activity may be a common mechanism for learning across the brain and provides a putative novel intervention for optimising functional improvements in response to training or therapy.

scholarly journals Coherent waves of myelin plasticity during motor-skill learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Azzaritto ◽  
Gabriel Ziegler ◽  
Eveline Huber ◽  
Patrick Grabher ◽  
Martina Callaghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Internal Capsule ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Corticospinal System ◽  
Spatially Distributed

Motor skill learning relies on neural plasticity in the motor and limbic systems. However, the spatial and temporal dependencies of these changes, and their microstructural underpinnings, remain unclear. Eighteen healthy males received training in a computer- controlled motion game 4 times a week, for 4 weeks. Performance improvements were observed in all trained participants. Serial myelin-sensitive multiparametric mapping at 3T during this period of intensive motor skill acquisition revealed temporally and spatially distributed, performance-related myelin-sensitive microstructural changes in the grey and white matter across the corticospinal system and hippocampus. Interestingly, analysis of the trajectory of these transient changes revealed a time-shifted choreography across white and grey matter of the corticospinal system as well as with changes in the hippocampus. Crucially, in the cranial corticospinal tracts, myelin-sensitive changes during training in the posterior part of the limb of the internal capsule were of greater magnitude in lower-limb trainees compared to upper limb trainees. Motor skill learning is depended on coherent waves of plasticity within a corticospinal-hippocampal loop.

Viewpoint: What Brain Research Can Tell Us About Accent Modification

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-108
Author(s):  
Catherine L. Ojakangas
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Automatic Production ◽  
Accent Modification

The field of brain research has made numerous advances in the past few decades into how we learn new motor skills, from the value of sleep to the discovery of “mirror neurons,” which fire when we watch others performing movements we are attempting to learn. Accent modification may be conceptualized as a form of sensorimotor skill learning – learning to produce a set of movement components and performing them as a whole automatically in spontaneous speech. Motor skill learning occurs in stages and motor habits are formed after acquisition of the new behavior, consolidation of the new brain patterns, and automatic production in appropriate settings. New neural pathways are formed and both cortical and subcortical brain regions participate. The author of this article reviews concepts from the neuroscience literature in the field of motor skill acquisition, work which has primarily focused on the learning of arm and finger movements, and attempts to apply them in a practical manner for the clinician working with non-native English speakers. Discussed are the neurophysiology of motor skill learning, stages of habit formation, intermittent practice, sleep, feedback, mirror neurons and motor imagery. Practical suggestions are given to optimize the accent modification process for the clinician and client.

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