The ability to learn novel motor skills has fundamental importance for adaptive behavior. Neocortical mechanisms support human motor skill learning, from simple practice to adaptation and arbitrary sensory-motor associations. Behavioral and neural manifestations of motor learning evolve in time and involve multiple structures across the neocortex. Modifications of neural properties, synchrony a...

This study evaluated the effect of a 10-week fundamental motor skill programme in pre-schoolers with motor problems. Alongside the general effect of the intervention, we also explored possible gender differences and the role of the environmental context (living community, socio-economic status, and recreational space inside/outside the house). The intervention group (n=47; 20 ♂ and 27 ♀) receiv...

the aim of this research was to investigate the effect of observing animated model, static images and combined model on motor learning of handstand balance skill. 45 subjects (mean age 8.03±1.7 yr) were randomly divided into three experimental groups: observation of animated model, static images, combined model. subjects trained handstand balance skill for three weeks (three sessions per week)....

Recent studies have shown that frontoparietal cortices and interconnecting regions in the basal ganglia and the cerebellum are related to motor skill learning. We propose that motor skill learning occurs independently and in different coordinates in two sets of loop circuits: cortex-basal ganglia and cortex-cerebellum. This architecture accounts for the seemingly diverse features of motor learn...

Extensive motor skill training induces reorganization of movement representations and synaptogenesis within adult motor cortex. Motor skill does not, however, develop uniformly across training sessions. It is characterized by an initial fast phase, followed by a later slow phase of learning. How cortical plasticity emerges during these phases is unknown. Here, we examine motor map topography an...

The role of protein synthesis in memory consolidation is well established for hippocampus-dependent learning and synaptic plasticity. Whether protein synthesis is required for motor skill learning is unknown. We hypothesized that skill learning is interrupted by protein synthesis inhibition (PSI). We intended to test whether local protein synthesis in motor cortex or cerebellum is required duri...

A key unresolved issue for systems neurobiology concerns the neural sites and mechanisms of motor skill learning. Sherrington and colleagues [1] noted nearly 100 years ago that neural mechanisms in the primary motor cortex seemingly exhibit a form of plasticity, based on observations of ‘instability’ in responses evoked by cortical stimulation. Seminal work in the following decades also suggest...

Researchers have begun to delineate the precise nature and neural correlates of the cognitive processes that contribute to motor skill learning. The authors review recent work from their laboratory designed to further understand the neurocognitive mechanisms of skill acquisition. The authors have demonstrated an important role for spatial working memory in 2 different types of motor skill learn...

Pless, M. 2001. Developmental co-ordination disorder in pre-school children. Effects of motor skill intervention, parents’ descriptions, and short-term follow-up of motor status. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1010. 43 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-4963-8. This investigation was undertaken to examine effects of motor skil...