Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Imaging brain plasticity during motor skill learning.

Leslie G Ungerleider1, Julien Doyon, Avi Karni

  • 1Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ungerlel@intra.nimh.nih.gov

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
|February 1, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Spinal cord structural and functional architecture and its shared organization with the brain across the adult lifespan.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Kindergarten Screening for Early (Grade 1) and Late-Emerging (Grade 4) Dyslexia Risk.

JAMA network open·2026
Same author

Spinal cord involvement and cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Spine-prints: Transposing brain fingerprints to the spinal cord.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

Correction: Self-reference promotes vocabulary learning in a foreign language.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2025
Same author

Parkinson's disease in the spinal cord: An exploratory study to establish T2*w, MTR and diffusion-weighted imaging metric values.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same journal

Double dissociation in the involvement of noradrenergic and endocannabinoid systems in classical and higher-order conditioning in newborn rabbits.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
Same journal

An occasion for reflection: Pavlovian modulation of conditioned responding by interoceptive drug stimuli.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
Same journal

Chemogenetic disruption of the hippocampus impairs gustatory preconditioning in rats.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
Same journal

Corrigendum to "Dynamic regulation of neuronal vault trafficking and RNA cargo by the noncoding RNA, Vaultrc5" [Neurobiol. Learn. Memory 225 (2026) 108161].

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
Same journal

Modeling the coexistence of NMDAR-dependent LTP and LTD mediated by changes in AMPAR conductance.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
Same journal

No evidence for a protein-synthesis-dependent form of long-term fear memory: Translational inhibition and neural inactivation disrupt short- and long-term memory measures to the same degree.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2026
See all related articles

Learning skilled motor behaviors involves dynamic brain changes. Primary motor cortex (M1) reorganizes slowly over weeks, following rapid shifts in the cerebellum and striatum during motor sequence learning.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Understanding the neural basis of motor skill acquisition is crucial for addressing motor disorders.
  • While the neural substrates of motor learning are increasingly understood, the temporal dynamics of these changes remain less clear.
  • Previous research has primarily focused on identifying brain regions involved, rather than the evolving neural activity during learning phases.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dynamic neural changes occurring in the motor system during different phases of motor sequence learning.
  • To elucidate the temporal relationship between changes in primary motor cortex (M1) and other motor-related brain areas during skill acquisition.
  • To propose a working hypothesis for the neural substrates underlying motor sequence learning consolidation.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to track brain activity during sequential finger movement learning.
  • Review of existing neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence related to motor skill consolidation.
  • Analysis of neural reorganization patterns in primary motor cortex (M1), cerebellum, striatum, and other motor-related cortical areas.

Main Results:

  • Motor sequence learning induces a slow reorganization within primary motor cortex (M1) over weeks.
  • Rapid, dynamic neural changes occur in the cerebellum, striatum, and other motor areas over days, preceding M1 reorganization.
  • Evidence suggests distinct temporal dynamics in neural adaptation across different motor system components during learning.

Conclusions:

  • Motor sequence learning involves a hierarchical temporal process, with rapid adaptation in subcortical and associative cortical areas followed by slower consolidation in M1.
  • This temporal dissociation suggests a coordinated network-level adaptation during motor skill acquisition.
  • The findings provide a framework for understanding the neural basis of motor skill consolidation and inform potential therapeutic strategies for motor impairments.