scholarly journals Remembrance of things practiced: Fast and slow learning in cortical and subcortical pathways

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Murray ◽  
G. Sean Escola
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Multiple Timescales ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Future Learning ◽  
Slow Learning

The learning of motor skills unfolds over multiple timescales, with rapid initial gains in performance followed by a longer period in which the behavior becomes more refined, habitual, and automatized. While recent lesion and inactivation experiments have provided hints about how various brain areas might contribute to such learning, their precise roles and the neural mechanisms underlying them are not well understood. In this work, we propose neural- and circuit-level mechanisms by which motor cortex, thalamus, and striatum support such learning. In this model, the combination of fast cortical learning and slow subcortical learning gives rise to a covert learning process through which control of behavior is gradually transferred from cortical to subcortical circuits, while protecting learned behaviors that are practiced repeatedly against overwriting by future learning. Together, these results point to a new computational role for thalamus in motor learning, and, more broadly, provide a framework for understanding the neural basis of habit formation and the automatization of behavior through practice.

scholarly journals Remembrance of things practiced with fast and slow learning in cortical and subcortical pathways

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Murray ◽  
G. Sean Escola
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Multiple Timescales ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Future Learning ◽  
Slow Learning

AbstractThe learning of motor skills unfolds over multiple timescales, with rapid initial gains in performance followed by a longer period in which the behavior becomes more refined, habitual, and automatized. While recent lesion and inactivation experiments have provided hints about how various brain areas might contribute to such learning, their precise roles and the neural mechanisms underlying them are not well understood. In this work, we propose neural- and circuit-level mechanisms by which motor cortex, thalamus, and striatum support motor learning. In this model, the combination of fast cortical learning and slow subcortical learning gives rise to a covert learning process through which control of behavior is gradually transferred from cortical to subcortical circuits, while protecting learned behaviors that are practiced repeatedly against overwriting by future learning. Together, these results point to a new computational role for thalamus in motor learning and, more broadly, provide a framework for understanding the neural basis of habit formation and the automatization of behavior through practice.

scholarly journals Distinct roles for motor cortical and thalamic inputs to striatum during motor learning and execution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen B. E. Wolff ◽  
Raymond Ko ◽  
Bence P. Ölveczky
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Thalamic Neurons ◽  
Cortical Input ◽  
Motor Circuits ◽  
Motor Network ◽  
Motor Cortical ◽  
Cortical Inputs

AbstractThe acquisition and execution of learned motor sequences are mediated by a distributed motor network, spanning cortical and subcortical brain areas. The sensorimotor striatum is an important cog in this network, yet how its two main inputs, from motor cortex and thalamus respectively, contribute to its role in motor learning and execution remains largely unknown. To address this, we trained rats in a task that produces highly stereotyped and idiosyncratic motor sequences. We found that motor cortical input to the sensorimotor striatum is critical for the learning process, but after the behaviors were consolidated, this corticostriatal pathway became dispensable. Functional silencing of striatal-projecting thalamic neurons, however, disrupted the execution of the learned motor sequences, causing rats to revert to behaviors produced early in learning and preventing them from re-learning the task. These results show that the sensorimotor striatum is a conduit through which motor cortical inputs can drive experience-dependent changes in subcortical motor circuits, likely at thalamostriatal synapses.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms of oculomotor abnormalities in the infantile strabismus syndrome

2017 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark M. G. Walton ◽  
Adam Pallus ◽  
Jérome Fleuriet ◽  
Michael J. Mustari ◽  
Kristina Tarczy-Hornoch
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Nonhuman Primate ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Oculomotor Nuclei ◽  
Oculomotor Abnormalities

Infantile strabismus is characterized by numerous visual and oculomotor abnormalities. Recently nonhuman primate models of infantile strabismus have been established, with characteristics that closely match those observed in human patients. This has made it possible to study the neural basis for visual and oculomotor symptoms in infantile strabismus. In this review, we consider the available evidence for neural abnormalities in structures related to oculomotor pathways ranging from visual cortex to oculomotor nuclei. These studies provide compelling evidence that a disturbance of binocular vision during a sensitive period early in life, whatever the cause, results in a cascade of abnormalities through numerous brain areas involved in visual functions and eye movements.

scholarly journals The basal ganglia can control learned motor sequences independently of motor cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashesh K. Dhawale ◽  
Steffen B. E. Wolff ◽  
Raymond Ko ◽  
Bence P. Ölveczky
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Kinematic Structure ◽  
Motor Circuits ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Learned Behaviors

SummaryHow the basal ganglia contribute to the execution of learned motor skills has been thoroughly investigated. The two dominant models that have emerged posit roles for the basal ganglia in action selection and in the modulation of movement vigor. Here we test these models in rats trained to execute highly stereotyped and idiosyncratic task-specific motor sequences. Recordings and manipulations of neural activity in the striatum were not well explained by either model, and suggested that the basal ganglia, in particular its sensorimotor arm, are crucial for controlling the detailed kinematic structure of the learned behaviors. Importantly, the neural representations in the striatum, and the control functions they subserve, did not depend on the motor cortex. Taken together, these results extend our understanding of basal ganglia function, by suggesting that they can control and modulate lower-level subcortical motor circuits on a moment-by-moment basis to generate stereotyped learned motor sequences.

scholarly journals Proactive Interference as a Result of Persisting Neural Representations of Previously Learned Motor Skills in Primary Motor Cortex

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 2167-2176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Cothros ◽  
Stefan Köhler ◽  
Erin W. Dickie ◽  
Seyed M. Mirsattari ◽  
Paul L. Gribble
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Proactive Interference ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Robotic Arm ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Neural Representations

Learning to control movements in different dynamic environments is marked by proactive interference; learning a first skill interferes with the subsequent learning of a second one. The neural basis of this effect is poorly understood. We tested the idea that proactive interference results from persisting neural representations of previously learned skills in the primary motor cortex (M1). We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of M1 to disrupt retention of a recently learned motor skill. If interference results from the retention of this skill then its disruption should be associated with reduced interference. Subjects reached to targets while interacting with a robotic arm that applied force fields to the limb. Fifteen minutes of 1-Hz rTMS to M1 impaired the retention of a first force field, and more importantly, reduced proactive interference when subjects learned a second one. Our findings suggest that retention and interference are linked at the level of M1.

Focal Photothrombotic Lesion of the Rat Motor Cortex Increases BDNF Levels in Motor-Sensory Cortical Areas Not Accompanied by Recovery of Forelimb Motor Skills

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1362-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorota Sulejczak ◽  
Ewelina Ziemlińska ◽  
Julita Czarkowska-Bauch ◽  
Ewa Nosecka ◽  
Ryszard Strzalkowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Cortical Areas

Responses to music: Emotional signaling, and learning

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 580-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin F. Gardiner
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Future Learning

AbstractIn the target article, Juslin & Västfjäll (J&V) contend that neural mechanisms not unique to music are critical to its capability to convey emotion. The work reviewed here provides a broader context for this proposal. Human abilities to signal emotion through sound could have been essential to human evolution, and may have contributed vital foundations for music. Future learning experiments are needed to further clarify engagement underlying musical and broader emotional signaling.

scholarly journals Mice are not automatons; subjective experience in premotor circuits guides behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew C. Schreiner ◽  
Christian Cazares ◽  
Rafael Renteria ◽  
Christina M Gremel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Checking Behavior ◽  
Corticostriatal Circuits

Subjective experience is a powerful driver of decision-making and continuously accrues. However, most neurobiological studies constrain analyses to task-related variables and ignore how continuously and individually experienced internal, temporal, and contextual factors influence adaptive behavior during decision-making and the associated neural mechanisms. We show mice rely on learned information about recent and longer-term subjective experience of variables above and beyond prior actions and reward, including checking behavior and the passage of time, to guide self-initiated, self-paced, and self-generated actions. These experiential variables were represented in secondary motor cortex (M2) activity and its projections into dorsal medial striatum (DMS). M2 integrated this information to bias strategy-level decision-making, and DMS projections used specific aspects of this recent experience to plan upcoming actions. This suggests diverse aspects of experience drive decision-making and its neural representation, and shows premotor corticostriatal circuits are crucial for using selective aspects of experiential information to guide adaptive behavior.

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