3.21 – Neurophysiology of Motor Skill Learning

Significant advances have been made in the past several years in understanding the role of the various cortical motor areas in motor learning. It is clear that motor skill acquisition is associated with alterations in topographic maps of motor representations, structural changes in neuronal elements (synapses, dendrites, etc.), and differential expression of growth-related proteins. We now recognize that motor learning is a distributed process. While differentiation in response properties of various cortical areas demonstrates their unique functions, there is considerable overlap. Primary motor cortex is most associated with movement-related aspects of learning motor tasks. The mesial areas are more related to learning motor sequences, especially when they are self-initiated. The lateral motor areas are more related to externally guided movements, and the integration of sensory cues with motor commands, especially in forming conditional motor associations. Finally, the cingulate motor areas are involved in more cognitive and motivational aspects of motor learning. This chapter reviews the literature primarily from nonhuman primate neurophysiology studies, as well as human neuroimaging studies that demonstrate this distributed network underlying motor learning.