Brain and spinal cord plasticity mechanisms mediating the fast learning phase of a motor memory trace

在我们的一生中，我们学习新的动作序列（例如，弹钢琴，打字，挥杆高尔夫球），以便经过大量的练习后，这些动作可以以快速和自动的方式进行。神经成像技术的出现使得在学习过程中绘制体内大脑活动图谱成为可能，这使得人们对全球范围内哪些人类大脑区域有助于学习此类运动技能的描述越来越多。尽管如此，目前的研究还没有提供一个精确的画面，说明这些大脑结构的活动是如何被运动序列练习动态塑造的，特别是在学习的第一步，在这一阶段，记忆痕迹是被创造出来的。因此，本研究项目的主要目标是在健康人身上采用创新的、最先进的神经成像技术，以更好地理解这一关键的学习初始阶段是如何动态塑造和改变众多已知参与运动技能习得的大脑结构的功能的，特别是在运动序列学习（MSL）中。此外，尽管大量的研究已经调查了与这种记忆形式相关的大脑可塑性，但这一研究领域完全忽视了位于大脑和运动效应器（例如，手的肌肉）之间的中枢神经系统的一个重要部分：可以在椎骨内找到的脊髓。后者的功能活动最近被证明是由各种运动任务调节的，但还没有研究人员研究脊髓在运动序列学习中的作用。通过多模态电生理成像方法，我们建议解决这个问题。我希望，这项工作将首次增加我们对MSL中脑和脊髓相互作用的知识基础，并将对要求康复的患者具有重要的临床应用。

Throughout our life, we learn new sequences of movements (e.g., playing the piano, typing, swinging a golf ball) so that these can be performed in a fast and automatic fashion after extensive practice. The advent of neuroimaging techniques that allow mapping brain activity in vivo during learning have led to a growing description of which human brain regions globally contribute to learning such motor skills. Nonetheless, current research does not provide yet a precise picture of how the activity of these brain structures are dynamically shaped by motor sequence practice, especially in the first step of learning during which the memory trace is created. The main objectives of this research program are thus to employ innovative, state of the art neuroimaging techniques in healthy humans to better comprehend how this crucial initial phase of learning dynamically shapes and alters the functioning of the numerous brain structures known to be engaged in motor skill acquisition, and in motor sequence learning (MSL) in particular. Furthermore, although a plethora of studies have already investigated the brain plasticity related to this form of memory, this field of research has completely neglected an important part of the central nervous system which lies between the brain and the motor effectors (e.g., muscles of the hand): the spinal cord that can be found within the vertebras. Functional activity within the latter has recently been shown to be modulated by a variety of motor tasks, but no researcher has yet looked at the role of the spinal cord in motor sequence learning. Through a multimodal electrophysiological-imaging approach, we thus propose to address this question. I expect that, for the first time, this work will increase our knowledge base on the interaction between brain and spinal cord in MSL, and that it will have major clinical applications for patients requesting rehabilitation.