Ipsilateral sensorimotor regions and motor sequence learning

Recently, Boyd and Winstein tested three groups of individuals with damage to unilateral sensorimotor areas on a version of the serial reaction time task performed with the ipsilesional hand. Only when the individuals were provided in advance with explicit knowledge of the motor sequence were they able to benefit behaviorally from the sequence. Despite aspects of the experimental procedure and the subject selection that make it difficult to draw strong conclusions, these results add to growing evidence that sensorimotor structures contribute to the formation of abstract representations that affect more than ipsilateral effectors.