Cellular and molecular mechanisms of motor skill learning

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There are a variety of learned actions, such as lacing shoes, writing words with a pencil, riding a bicycle and driving a car that make our lives more efficient. When we learn a new action, we pay full attention to carrying it out; but after repeating it, the action becomes nearly automatic. Despite the significance of motor learning for the performance of most behaviors, little is known as to how skilled movement is encoded by the brain and how aging is affecting this ability. For instance, whereas motor memory is preserved with advanced age, the ability to acquire new motor skills is significantly slower. As a new appointed professor in the department of Chemistry-Biology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, I am interested to expand our understanding on the mechanisms regulating the nature and dynamics of the plastic changes occurring during the learning of a motor task. One aspect of my previous work completed during a post-doctoral training at Duke University (NC) has raised the interesting possibility that molecules known to be implicated on memory processes, such as members of the synaptic-associated proteins, might also play a role in motor skill learning. This research program will investigate (1) the synaptic densities and (2) the expression levels of candidate synapse-associated proteins in the brain of mice at different age during motor skill learning. In addition, (3) we will delineate the specific genes implicated in this condition using a robust modern technique, the DNA microarray analysis. As synapses have over 1000 protein components, a better understanding of these protein interactions, organization and functions will lead to a global view of the role of synapses in the control and the learning of motor behaviors, and neurophysiology in general.