Structure of plasticity in human sensory and motor networks due to perceptual learning

As we begin to acquire a new motor skill, we face the dual challenge of determining and refining the somatosensory goals of our movements and establishing the best motor commands to achieve our ends. The two typically proceed in parallel, and accordingly it is unclear how much of skill acquisition is a reflection of changes in sensory systems and how much reflects changes in the brain's motor areas. Here we have intentionally separated perceptual and motor learning in time so that we can assess functional changes to human sensory and motor networks as a result of perceptual learning. Our subjects underwent fMRI scans of the resting brain before and after a somatosensory discrimination task. We identified changes in functional connectivity that were due to the effects of perceptual learning on movement. For this purpose, we used a neural model of the transmission of sensory signals from perceptual decision making through to motor action. We used this model in combination with a partial correlation technique to parcel out those changes in connectivity observed in motor systems that could be attributed to activity in sensory brain regions. We found that, after removing effects that are linearly correlated with somatosensory activity, perceptual learning results in changes to frontal motor areas that are related to the effects of this training on motor behavior and learning. This suggests that perceptual learning produces changes to frontal motor areas of the brain and may thus contribute directly to motor learning.