Motor Learning and Sensory Plasticity

我研究的长期目标是了解人类运动和感觉系统的神经可塑性。在这种背景下，令人惊讶的是，对运动系统可塑性的研究在很大程度上是从对感觉可塑性的研究中分离出来的，就好像学习单独影响这些系统中的每一个一样。在每一种情况下，都有大量文献记录发育中的神经系统和成人神经系统的可塑性。但越来越多的证据表明，可塑性的影响从运动系统扩散到感觉系统。因此，例如，我们最近表明，运动学习的影响不仅限于大脑的运动区域，而且影响更广泛，延伸到非运动区域，特别是皮质感觉系统。我们最近还发现，这些影响发生在相反的方向，重要的是，体感训练促进了运动学习，不仅导致大脑感觉区域的持续变化，而且还导致皮质运动区的持续变化。因此，我们的工作提出了一种神经可塑性的方法，其中对感觉或运动系统的修改不是单独发生的，而是每个系统都具有扩散到大脑功能相关区域的影响。到目前为止，许多关于运动学习对感觉系统的影响和体感知觉训练对运动系统的影响的工作在本质上是相互关联的。这项NSERC Discovery Grant的具体目标是结合心理物理和神经生理学技术，在观察到的学习行为变化中确定大脑特定运动和感觉区域的因果作用。为此，我们将使用经颅磁刺激(TMS)来抑制特定大脑区域的活动。通过抑制活动，我们可以评估这些特定区域在多大程度上对观察到的与学习相关的知觉和运动功能的变化起核心作用。

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. Much of the work to date on the effects of motor learning on sensory systems and of somatosensory perceptual training on motor systems has been correlational in nature. The specific objective of this NSERC Discovery Grant is to combine psychophysical and neurophysiological techniques to establish a causal role for specific motor and sensory areas of the brain in the observed behavioral changes with learning. To do so, we will use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to suppress activity in specific brain areas. By suppressing activity we can assess the extent to which these particular areas are central to changes observed in perceptual and motor function in conjunction with learning.