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Motor Skill Acquisition Promotes Human Brain Myelin Plasticity
Bimal Lakhani1, Michael R Borich2, Jacob N Jackson3
1Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3.
Neural Plasticity
|June 14, 2016
Summary
Motor skill training enhances brain myelin in adults. Faster learning correlated with less myelin change, indicating neuroplasticity is linked to skill acquisition. This research explores myelin
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Motor Control
Background:
- Experience-dependent structural changes occur in gray matter.
- Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) shows motor training affects white matter.
- The relationship between white matter features, motor skill acquisition, and functional connectivity in humans is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate experience-dependent changes in white matter myelin.
- To determine if specific white matter changes correlate with motor skill acquisition.
- To explore associations between structural brain changes and skilled movement.
Main Methods:
- Seventeen healthy adults underwent visuomotor skill training (10 sessions, 10,000 movements).
- Multicomponent relaxation imaging quantified myelin water fraction (MWF) before and after training.
- Correlations between motor skill acquisition rate and MWF changes were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Significant increases in MWF were found in task-dependent regions (left intraparietal sulcus [IPS] and left parieto-occipital sulcus).
- A negative correlation was observed between the rate of motor skill acquisition and MWF change in the left IPS.
- Slower learning rates were associated with greater neuroplastic changes in myelin.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first evidence of experience-dependent myelin changes linked to skilled movement in healthy adults.
- Myelin quantification in vivo can index specific experience-dependent neuroplasticity.
- The findings suggest a complex relationship between learning speed and the extent of structural brain adaptation.
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