Functional reorganisation of the corticomotor projection to the hand in skilled racquet players

Abstract

While it is known that relatively rapid changes in functional representation may occur in the human sensorimotor cortex in short-term motorlearning studies, there have been few studies of changes in organisation of the corticomotor system associated with the long-term acquisition of motor skills. In the present study, we have used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the corticomotor projection to the hand in a group of elite racquet players, who have developed and maintained a high level of skill over a period of many years, and have compared the findings with those in a group of social players and a group of non-playing control subjects. Increased motor-evoked-potential (MEP) amplitudes and shifts in the cortical motor maps for the playing hand were found in all of the elite players and cortical motor thresholds were reduced in some players, whereas in the social players all parameters were within the normal range. The findings in the elite players are interpreted as being indications of a process of functional reorganisation with the motor cortex or corticomotor pathway that are associated with the acquisition and retention of complex motor skills.

White Matter Organization in Cervical Spinal Cord Relates Differently to Age and Control of Grip Force in Healthy Subjects

“…Learning or highly repetitive use of finger movements have been linked to structural and functional changes in sensorimotor brain networks (Karni et al, 1995;Pascual-Leone et al, 1993Pearce et al, 2000;Draganski et al, 2004;Rosenkranz et al, 2007) and spinal networks (Perez et al, 2005;Meunier et al, 2007). Nonetheless, this is supposed to reflect changes in synaptic plasticity and not in white matter (cf.…”

Cortical Synaptogenesis and Motor Map Reorganization Occur during Late, But Not Early, Phase of Motor Skill Learning

“…However, the capacity for reorganization likely exists to support acquisition of skilled movement. Indeed, motor learningdependent changes in movement representations have been demonstrated in human (Cohen et al, 1993;Pearce et al, 2000), monkey (Nudo et al, 1996b), and rodent (Kleim et al, 1998a;Remple et al, 2001;Conner et al, 2003) motor cortex. The reorganization is characterized by both an areal expansion and an increase in the number of representations corresponding to trained movements (Nudo et al, 1996a;Kleim et al, 1998aKleim et al, , 2002bConner et al, 2003).…”

Improvements in the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Motor Cortex Cells Distinguish Early versus Late Phases of Motor Skill Learning

“…In human subjects, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of M1 immediately after skill practice disrupts the retention of behavioral improvements (Muellbacher et al, 2002). Extended skill training with a specific body part increases the area in M1 from which movements of that part can be evoked (Nudo et al, 1996;Kleim et al, 1998;Pearce et al, 2000) and produces changes in the topography and volume of M1 that are activated during performance (Karni et al, 1995(Karni et al, , 1998.…”