Spampinato, DA;
Block, HJ;
Celnik, PA;
(2017)
Cerebellar-M1 Connectivity Changes Associated with Motor Learning Are Somatotopic Specific.
Journal of Neuroscience
, 37
(9)
pp. 2377-2386.
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2511-16.2017.
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Abstract
One ofthefunctions ofthe cerebellum in motor learning isto predict and accountfor systematic changestothe body or environment. This form of adaptive learning is mediated by plastic changes occurring within the cerebellar cortex. The strength of cerebellar-to-cerebral pathways for a given muscle may reflect aspects of cerebellum-dependent motor adaptation. These connections with motor cortex (M1) can be estimated as cerebellar inhibition (CBI): a conditioning pulse of transcranial magnetic stimulation delivered to the cerebellum before a test pulse over motor cortex. Previously, we have demonstrated that changes in CBI for a given muscle representation correlate with learning a motor adaptation task with the involved limb. However, the specificity of these effects is unknown. Here, we investigated whether CBI changes in humans are somatotopy specific and how they relate to motor adaptation. We found that learning a visuomotor rotation task with the right hand changed CBI, not only for the involved first dorsal interosseous of the right hand, but also for an uninvolved right leg muscle, the tibialis anterior, likely related to inter-effector transfer of learning. In two follow-up experiments, we investigated whether the preparation of a simple hand or leg movement would produce a somatotopy-specific modulation of CBI. We found that CBI changes only for the effector involved in the movement. These results indicate that learning-related changes in cerebellar–M1 connectivity reflect a somatotopy-specific interaction. Modulation of this pathway is also present in the context of interlimb transfer of learning.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Cerebellar-M1 Connectivity Changes Associated with Motor Learning Are Somatotopic Specific |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2511-16.2017 |
Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2511-16.2017 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) after 6 months of the publication date which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed |
Keywords: | adaptation; cerebellum; connectivity; somatotopy; transcranial magnetic stimulation |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Clinical and Movement Neurosciences |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10062685 |




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