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Open Access 01-04-2022 | Original Article

Motor sequences; separating the sequence from the motor. A longitudinal rsfMRI study

Authors: Anna-Thekla P. Jäger, Julia M. Huntenburg, Stefanie A. Tremblay, Uta Schneider, Sophia Grahl, Julia Huck, Christine L. Tardif, Arno Villringer, Claudine J. Gauthier, Pierre-Louis Bazin, Christopher J. Steele

Published in: Brain Structure and Function | Issue 3/2022

Abstract

In motor learning, sequence specificity, i.e. the learning of specific sequential associations, has predominantly been studied using task-based fMRI paradigms. However, offline changes in resting state functional connectivity after sequence-specific motor learning are less well understood. Previous research has established that plastic changes following motor learning can be divided into stages including fast learning, slow learning and retention. A description of how resting state functional connectivity after sequence-specific motor sequence learning (MSL) develops across these stages is missing. This study aimed to identify plastic alterations in whole-brain functional connectivity after learning a complex motor sequence by contrasting an active group who learned a complex sequence with a control group who performed a control task matched for motor execution. Resting state fMRI and behavioural performance were collected in both groups over the course of 5 consecutive training days and at follow-up after 12 days to encompass fast learning, slow learning, overall learning and retention. Between-group interaction analyses showed sequence-specific decreases in functional connectivity during overall learning in the right supplementary motor area (SMA). We found that connectivity changes in a key region of the motor network, the superior parietal cortex (SPC) were not a result of sequence-specific learning but were instead linked to motor execution. Our study confirms the sequence-specific role of SMA that has previously been identified in online task-based learning studies, and extends it to resting state network changes after sequence-specific MSL.

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Title: Motor sequences; separating the sequence from the motor. A longitudinal rsfMRI study
Authors: Anna-Thekla P. Jäger
Julia M. Huntenburg
Stefanie A. Tremblay
Uta Schneider
Sophia Grahl
Julia Huck
Christine L. Tardif
Arno Villringer
Claudine J. Gauthier
Pierre-Louis Bazin
Christopher J. Steele
Publication date: 01-04-2022
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Brain Structure and Function / Issue 3/2022
Print ISSN: 1863-2653
Electronic ISSN: 1863-2661
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02412-7

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Motor sequences; separating the sequence from the motor. A longitudinal rsfMRI study

Abstract

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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