Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a critical substrate for motor learning. However, how DLPFC is involved in goal-directed, sequence-specific learning remains unclear, and effects of age on learning and DLPFC-to-primary motor cortex (M1) connections have not been tested. We studied 14 right-handed healthy subjects, 20-80 years old, in a combined TMS-pinch experiment. We examined DLPFC-M1 connections in human subjects and how they change with motor training, whether sequence training changes M1 intracortical and DLPFC-M1 neurophysiology differently than motor training not containing a sequence, and whether age influences the TMS neurophysiological measures. All subjects were unable to regenerate the sequence, and behavioural/TMS measures suggest that they implicitly acquired the sequence. Sequence acquisition correlated with DLPFC-M1 facilitation. The results suggest that the brain processes sequence information differently from non-specific information during motor training. The DLPFC may play a role in processing sequence-specific information through an excitatory functional connection to M1 during acquisition.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Susy Lam
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2761483893