Training-Induced Plasticity in Human Motor and Sensory Systems

描述(申请人提供)：对运动系统的可塑性的研究在很大程度上是与感觉可塑性的工作分开发展的，就好像训练引起的大脑变化单独影响这些系统一样。计划中的研究探索了这样一种观点，即学习的影响更广泛，在感觉运动系统中，从运动扩散到大脑的躯体感觉区域，反之亦然。这项拟议的研究将系统地探索关于神经可塑性的两个假说：(1)运动学习改变了大脑的感知功能和体感区域的功能；(2)体感训练改变了大脑的运动功能和运动区域。我们的计划是通过使用一种结合心理物理、神经生理和神经成像技术的连贯方法来研究运动学习对感觉系统的影响以及体感知觉训练对运动系统的影响。关于第一个假设，我们将对运动学习和知觉变化具有相似的时间进程，以及运动学习之后，运动遵循改变的知觉边界的想法进行行为测试。我们将使用fMRI静息状态功能连接性分析来测试运动学习与大脑感觉区域的变化有关的想法，而这些变化与学习和知觉变化的行为测量有关。我们将通过使用脑电(EEG)记录体感诱发电位(SEP)来测试感觉功能的皮质变化，并将SEP的变化与运动学习的测量相关联。对于第二个假设，我们将对躯体感觉知觉训练提高运动学习速度并在运动中产生持续变化的想法进行行为测试，这些变化可以测量长达一周的时间。我们将使用静息状态成像来测试躯体感觉训练增强大脑运动区两侧功能连接的想法。我们将使用经颅磁刺激(TMS)来测试与体感训练相关的初级运动皮质兴奋性的变化。能够量化伴随着躯体感觉训练和运动学习的大脑可塑性变化，可能会使人们更好地理解神经康复对感觉运动障碍的更广泛影响。对与躯体感觉和运动学习相关的大脑感觉和运动网络进行成像也可能导致在治疗期间更好地诊断和跟踪脑神经可塑性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research on plasticity in motor systems has for the most part developed separately from work on sensory plasticity, as if training-induced changes to the brain affected each of these systems in isolation. The planned studies explore the idea that influences of learning are more extensive, and in the sensorimotor system, spread from motor to somatosensory areas of the brain and vice versa. The proposed studies will systematically explore two hypotheses about neuroplasticity: (1) that motor learning changes perceptual function and the function of somatosensory areas of the brain, and (2) that somatosensory training changes both motor function and motor areas of the brain. Our plan is to address the effects of motor learning on sensory systems and of somatosensory perceptual training on motor systems by using a cohesive approach that is similar for both hypotheses and combines psychophysical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques. With respect to the first hypothesis, we will conduct behavioral tests of the idea that motor learning and perceptual change have a similar time course and that after motor learning, movements follow altered perceptual boundaries. We will use fMRI resting-state functional connectivity analyses to test the idea that motor learning is associated with changes to sensory areas of the brain and these changes are linked to behavioral measures of learning and perceptual change. We will test for cortical changes in sensory function by using electroencephalography (EEG) to record somatosensory evoked-potentials (SEPs) and relate changes in SEPs to measures of motor learning. For the second hypothesis, we will conduct behavioral tests of the idea that somatosensory perceptual training improves the rate of motor learning and produces persistent changes in movement that can be measured for periods of up to one week. We will use resting state imaging to test the idea that somatosensory training strengthens functional connectivity bilaterally in motor areas of the brain. We will use trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test for changes associated with somatosensory training in the excitability of primary motor cortex. The ability to quantify changes to brain plasticity that accompany both somatosensory training and motor learning may permit a better understanding of the broader effects of neurological rehabilitation on sensorimotor disorders. Imaging the sensory and motor networks of the brain that are associated with both somatosensory and motor learning may also lead to better diagnoses and tracking of brain neuroplasticity during therapy.