Role of Prefrontal Cortex in Locomotor Learning

前额叶皮层在运动学习中的作用

• 批准号: 9230453
• 负责人: Ryan Thomas Roemmich
• 金额: $ 2.02万
• 依托单位: HUGO W. MOSER RES INST KENNEDY KRIEGER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-01 至 2017-06-25
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9230453
• 关键词: Affect; Aging; Anodes; Brain; Cathodes; Cerebellum; Characteristics; Clinical; Cognitive; Data; Elderly; Environment; Exposure to; Gait; Goals; Health; Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Lead; Learning; Lesion; Locomotor adaptation; Manuals; Mediating; Modeling; Motor; Movement; Movement Disorders; Nervous system structure; Neurologic Gait Disorders; Pathologic; Pattern; Persons; Phase; Play; Population; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Quality of life; Rehabilitation therapy; Role; Savings; Speed; Structure; Sum; Upper Extremity; Walking; adaptive learning; base; cognitive function; direct application; experience; gait rehabilitation; improved; motor learning; neuromechanism; novel; public health relevance; response; tool; treadmill; visual feedback

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Gait function is a strong predictor of general health and quality of life in older adults and persons with movement disorders. However, our ability to restore healthy gait patterns through rehabilitation is limited by a lack of understanding about how the nervous system learns and stores new gait patterns. This proposal aims to advance our understanding of the brain structures that influence locomotor learning and investigate how activity in these structures can be manipulated with non-invasive stimulation to enhance learning. Specifically, we will focus on the prefrontal cortex and its role in strategic and adaptie locomotor learning. The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in cognitive function, gait modulation, and multiple mechanisms of motor learning (including strategic and adaptive learning). Here, we will investigate prefrontal contributions to locomotor learning and, importantly, whether we can manipulate prefrontal activity to enhance learning. Aim 1 examines how error size during adaptive locomotor learning affects the ability to explicitly recall a perturbation. We have observed that, during split-belt treadmill walking, abrupt adaptation leads to faster relearning (i.e., savings) while gradual adaptation does not. We think that savings might be absent following gradual adaptation because small errors provide little explicit information about the magnitude of the perturbation (i.e., difference between belt speeds). We also suspect that the abilities to detect a perturbation and determine whether it has been previously-experienced may be frontally-mediated, as persons with prefrontal lesions have difficulty detecting perturbations in upper extremity movements. Aim 2 investigates how excitatory (anodal) and inhibitory (cathodal) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the prefrontal cortex affects explicit recall of a perturbation during adaptive locomotor learning and retention of what has been learned during strategic locomotor learning. This information could open a new avenue for gait rehabilitation by demonstrating that the prefrontal cortex can be stimulated with tDCS to enhance locomotor learning. In Aim 3, we study the effects of prefrontal tDCS on strategic locomotor learning in persons with cerebellar damage. Persons with cerebellar damage demonstrate adaptive motor learning impairments. Accordingly, alternative mechanisms are required to facilitate locomotor learning within this population. We will attempt to enhance strategic locomotor learning in persons with cerebellar damage using prefrontal tDCS. The goals of this proposal are to understand the role of the prefrontal cortex during adaptive and strategic locomotor learning and to investigate how to manipulate activity of the prefrontal cortex to enhance these learning mechanisms. The findings of this proposal could have a profound impact on gait rehabilitation by advancing the understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in locomotor learning and providing direct evidence that non-invasive brain stimulation can enhance strategic and adaptive locomotor learning.

 描述（由适用提供）：步态功能是老年人和运动障碍患者的一般健康和生活质量的有力预测指标。但是，我们通过康复恢复健康步态模式的能力受到对神经系统如何学习和存储新步态模式的了解的限制。该建议旨在提高我们对影响运动学习的大脑结构的理解，并研究如何通过非侵入性刺激来操纵这些结构中的活动以增强学习。具体而言，我们将重点关注前额叶皮层及其在战略和适应运动中的作用。前额叶皮层已在认知功能，满足运动学习的多种机制（包括战略性和自适应学习）中实施。在这里，我们将研究对运动学习的前额叶贡献，重要的是，我们是否可以操纵前额叶活动以增强学习。 AIM 1考试在自适应运动过程中的错误大小如何影响明确回忆扰动的能力。我们已经观察到，在拆分皮带跑步机行走中，突然的适应会导致更快的发展（即储蓄），而等级适应没有。我们认为，在适应年级后，可能没有节省，因为小错误几乎没有有关扰动大小的明确信息（即皮带速度之间的差异）。我们还怀疑检测扰动的能力并确定是否已经进行了前额叶病变的人在上肢运动中很难检测到扰动，因此可以对其进行正面介导。 AIM 2研究了如何令人兴奋（阳极）和抑制性（阴极）trancranial直流电流刺激（TDC） 前额叶皮层会影响自适应运动过程中扰动的明确回忆，并保留战略运动过程中所学的知识。这些信息可以通过证明可以用TDC刺激前额叶皮层来增强运动性运动的新途径进行步态康复。在AIM 3中，我们研究了前额叶TDC对小脑损害的人的战略运动学习的影响。小脑损害的人表现出适应性运动学习障碍。彼此之间，需要替代机制来促进该人群中的运动学习。我们将尝试使用前额叶TDC在具有小脑损害的人中增强战略运动学习。该建议的目标是了解前额叶皮层在自适应和战略运动学习过程中的作用，并研究如何操纵前额叶皮层的活动以增强这些学习机制。该提案的发现可以通过促进对运动学习中涉及的神经机制的理解，并提供直接证据表明非侵入性大脑刺激可以增强战略性和适应性的运动学习，从而对步态康复产生深远的影响。