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Published on: March 4, 2014
Plasticity of motor cortex induced by coordination and training
1Laboratoire Plasticité et Physio-Pathologie de la Motricité, UMR 6196, CNRS, 31 Chemin J. Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France. tycfr@free.fr
Summary
Training a coordinated movement enlarged brain maps for arm muscles. This suggests that learning complex actions strengthens neural connections between muscles, enhancing functional synergies.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Neuroplasticity
Background:
- Motor learning involves changes in the primary motor cortex (M1).
- Understanding how M1 adapts to training complex movements is crucial for rehabilitation and performance enhancement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of coordinated movement training on M1 representations of proximal and distal muscles.
- To examine changes in M1 maps when muscles are activated alone versus during co-contraction.
Main Methods:
- Six healthy female students underwent a 6-week darts training program (over 1200 throws).
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) mapped representations of medial deltoid (proximal) and brachio-radialis (distal) muscles in M1.
- Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and excitability curves assessed corticomotor excitability.
Main Results:
- Cortical representation areas for both individual muscles increased post-training.
- Co-activation of the brachio-radialis (BR) with the medial deltoid (MD) enhanced BR's cortical representation and excitability.
- Combined co-contraction training led to a significant enlargement of the BR muscle's M1 representation.
Conclusions:
- Enlarged BR representation in M1 indicates the formation of overlapping neural zones for functional synergies between distal and proximal muscles.
- Training coordinated movements necessitates activity-dependent coupling of cortical networks.
- Findings support the concept of adaptive neural network reorganization underlying motor skill acquisition.
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