Affiliations: [a] Department of Physical Therapy, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, Republic of Korea | [b] Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Division for Neurorehabilitation, Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea | [c] Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Republic of Korea | [d] Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Samsung Medical Center, Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea | [e] Department of Radiology, Center for Imaging Science, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Yun-Hee Kim, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Division for Neurorehabilitation, Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 135-710, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 3410 2824; Fax: +82 2 3410 0052; E-mail: yunkim@skku.edu; yun1225.kim@samsung.com
Abstract: Background:Failure of early motor learning due to damage in any brain area involved in this process may interfere with successful rehabilitation of such patients. Objective:We investigated the changes in activation of the motor network during sequential finger motor learning to delineate the characteristics of the cortico-subcortical network during motor skill learning. Methods:Twenty healthy, right-handed volunteers participated. Subjects were instructed to perform eight blocks of a sequential finger motor task while functional MRI (fMRI) was performed. Results:The participants had an improvement in performance over time from block 1 to block 4, indicating that successful learning had occurred, followed by a plateau from block 5 to the last block. On fMRI, activities of the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex, the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, and the posterior parietal cortex gradually increased from block 1 to block 4 and then decreased from block 5 to the last. In contrast, activity of the ipsilateral cerebellum showed a linear increase spanning the last block with peak activation. The thalamus and basal ganglia showed unilateral or bilateral activities at the unique stage of motor learning. Conclusions:These findings delineated the characteristic plastic changes and different roles of the cortico-subcortical network during the early phase of motor learning and automatization.
Keywords: Cortico-subcortical network, functional MRI, motor learning
