Motor Learning and Sensory Plasticity

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The long-term objective of my research is to understand neuroplasticity in human motor and sensory systems. In this context, it is striking that research on plasticity in motor systems has for the most part developed separately from work on sensory plasticity, as if learning affected each of these systems in isolation. In each case there is a large literature documenting plasticity in the developing and adult nervous systems. But increasingly there is evidence that the effects of plasticity spread from motor to sensory systems. Thus for example, we have recently shown that the effects of motor learning are not limited to motor areas of the brain but rather, the influence is more extensive, extending into non-motor areas and notably into cortical sensory systems. We have also recently found that these effects occur in the opposite direction, and importantly that somatosensory training facilitates motor learning and results in persistent changes not only to sensory areas of the brain but also to cortical motor areas. Thus our work suggests an approach to neuroplasticity in which modifications to sensory or motor systems do not occur in isolation, but rather each has effects that spread into functionally related areas of the brain.