We used high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to study the role of the mesial frontocentral cortex (including the supplementary motor area) in the organization of sequential finger movements of different complexity in humans. In 15 subjects, rTMS was randomly applied to the scalp overlying the region of the supplementary motor area and over other positions, includin...

Representation of sequential structure can occur with respect to the order of perceptual events or the order in which actions are linked. Neural correlates of sequence retrieval associated with the order of motor responses were identified in a variant of the serial reaction time task in which training occurred with a spatially incompatible mapping between stimuli and finger responses. After tra...

The generation of long-term memory for motor skills can be modulated by subsequent motor experiences that interfere with the consolidation process. Recent studies suggest that even a non-motor task may adversely affect some aspects of motor sequence memory. Here we show that motor sequence memory can be either enhanced or reduced, by different cognitive tasks. Participants were trained in perfo...

Motor sequences are formed through the serial execution of different movements, but how nervous systems implement this process remains largely unknown. We determined the organizational principles governing how dirty fruit flies groom their bodies with sequential movements. Using genetically targeted activation of neural subsets, we drove distinct motor programs that clean individual body parts....

There is ample evidence that motor sequence learning is mediated by changes in brain activity. Yet the question of whether this form of learning elicits changes detectable at the spinal cord level has not been addressed. To date, studies in humans have revealed that spinal reflex activity may be altered during the acquisition of various motor skills, but a link between motor sequence learning a...

Whereas the human right hemisphere is active during execution of contralateral hand movements, the left hemisphere is engaged for both contra- and ipsilateral movements, at least for right-handed subjects. Whether this asymmetry is also found during motor learning remains unknown. Implicit sequence learning by the nondominant left hand was examined with the serial reaction time (SRT) task durin...

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to specific auditory sequences could lead to the crossmodal induction of new motor memories. Twenty young, healthy participants memorized a melody without moving. Each tone in the memorized melody had previously been associated with a particular finger movement. For ten of the participants, the contour of the melody memorized was congruent t...

17 The capacity to learn new motor sequences is fundamental to adaptive motor behavior. 18 The early phase of motor sequence learning relies on the ventral and anterior striatal 19 circuitry whereas the late phase relies on the dorsal and posterior striatal circuitry 20 (Lehericy et al., 2005). Early Parkinson’s disease (PD) is mainly characterized by 21 dopaminergic denervation of the dorsal a...