Back

Coherent waves of myelin plasticity during motor-skill learning

Azzaritto, M.; Ziegler, G.; Huber, E.; Grabher, P.; Callaghan, M.; Thompson, A.; Friston, K.; Weiskopf, N.; Killeen, T.; Freund, P.

2021-04-14 neuroscience
10.1101/2021.04.13.439402 bioRxiv
Show abstract

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.

Matching journals

The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.