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Kogan E, Lu J, Zuo Y. Cortical circuit dynamics underlying motor skill learning: from rodents to humans. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1292685. [PMID: 37965043 PMCID: PMC10641381 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1292685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Motor learning is crucial for the survival of many animals. Acquiring a new motor skill involves complex alterations in both local neural circuits in many brain regions and long-range connections between them. Such changes can be observed anatomically and functionally. The primary motor cortex (M1) integrates information from diverse brain regions and plays a pivotal role in the acquisition and refinement of new motor skills. In this review, we discuss how motor learning affects the M1 at synaptic, cellular, and circuit levels. Wherever applicable, we attempt to relate and compare findings in humans, non-human primates, and rodents. Understanding the underlying principles shared by different species will deepen our understanding of the neurobiological and computational basis of motor learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Yi Zuo
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
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2
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Yamashita M, Suzuki M, Kawagoe T, Asano K, Futada M, Nakai R, Abe N, Sekiyama K. Impact of Early-Commenced and Continued Sports Training on the Precuneus in Older Athletes. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:766935. [PMID: 34955788 PMCID: PMC8692267 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.766935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Intervention studies on sedentary older adults have demonstrated that commencing physical exercise at an older age has a positive effect on brain structure. Although this suggests that older athletes with lifelong sports training have larger gray matter volume (GMV) in some brain regions compared to age-matched non-athletes, evidence in the literature is scarce. Moreover, it remains unclear whether a larger GMV is associated with training intensity or period of training in life. To address these gaps in the literature, we compared regional brain GMV between 24 older athletes (mean age, 71.4 years; age at the commencement of sports training, 31.2 years, continuous sports training, 40.0 years; current training time, 7.9 h/week) and 24 age-matched non-athletes (mean age, 71.0 years). The period of sports training and the current training time of the athletes were assessed. Both groups were evaluated for physical activity intensity as well as cognitive and motor performance. Although no group differences were noted in cognitive and motor performance, athletes reported higher physical activity intensity than non-athletes. Whole-brain structural analysis revealed a significantly larger GMV in several brain regions in athletes. Notably, the GMV of the precuneus in athletes was positively correlated with earlier commencement of sports training and training duration but was negatively correlated with current training time. Our findings demonstrate that early-commenced and continued sports training predicts structural maintenance of the precuneus in old age. Our results also suggest that excessive training time in old age may have a negative impact on the GMV of the precuneus; thereby delineating how the precuneus is associated with lifelong sports training in older athletes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masatoshi Yamashita
- Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Maki Suzuki
- Department of Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, Osaka University United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka, Japan.,Faculty of Letters, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan
| | - Toshikazu Kawagoe
- Faculty of Letters, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.,Liberal Arts Education Center, Kyushu Campuses, Tokai University, Kumamoto, Japan
| | - Kohei Asano
- Faculty of Child Care and Education, Osaka University of Comprehensive Children Education, Osaka, Japan.,Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | | | - Ryusuke Nakai
- Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Nobuhito Abe
- Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Kaoru Sekiyama
- Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.,Faculty of Letters, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan
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3
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Serra L, Raimondi S, di Domenico C, Maffei S, Lardone A, Liparoti M, Sorrentino P, Caltagirone C, Petrosini L, Mandolesi L. The beneficial effects of physical exercise on visuospatial working memory in preadolescent children. AIMS Neurosci 2021; 8:496-509. [PMID: 34877401 PMCID: PMC8611191 DOI: 10.3934/neuroscience.2021026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between physical exercise and improvement in specific cognitive domains in children and adolescents who play sport has been recently reported, although the effects on visuospatial abilities have not yet been well explored. This study is aimed at evaluating in school-age children practicing artistic gymnastics the visuospatial memory by using a table version of the Radial Arm Maze (table-RAM) and comparing their performances with those ones who do not play any sport. The visuospatial performances of 14 preadolescent girls practicing artistic gymnastics aged between 7 and 10 years and those of 14 preadolescent girls not playing any sport were evaluated in the table-RAM forced-choice paradigm that allows disentangling short-term memory from working memory abilities. Data showed that the gymnasts obtained better performances than control group mainly in the parameters evaluating working memory abilities, such as within-phase errors and spatial span. Our findings emphasizing the role of physical activity on cognitive performances impel to promote physical exercise in educational and recreational contexts as well as to analyse the impact of other sports besides gymnastics on cognitive functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Serra
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Sara Raimondi
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Silvia Maffei
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Anna Lardone
- Department of Motor Sciences and Wellness, University "Parthenope", Naples, Italy
| | - Marianna Liparoti
- Department of Motor Sciences and Wellness, University "Parthenope", Naples, Italy
| | - Pierpaolo Sorrentino
- Institute de Neurosciences Des Systèmes, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France Department of Engineering, University "Parthenope", Naples, Italy
| | - Carlo Caltagirone
- Department of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Laura Petrosini
- Laboratory of Experimental and Behavioural Neurophysiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Laura Mandolesi
- Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
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4
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Tomita H, Kamagata K, Andica C, Uchida W, Fukuo M, Waki H, Sugano H, Tange Y, Mitsuhashi T, Lukies M, Hagiwara A, Fujita S, Wada A, Akashi T, Murata S, Harada M, Aoki S, Naito H. Connectome analysis of male world-class gymnasts using probabilistic multishell, multitissue constrained spherical deconvolution tracking. J Neurosci Res 2021; 99:2558-2572. [PMID: 34245603 PMCID: PMC9541483 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
In athletes, long‐term intensive training has been shown to increase unparalleled athletic ability and might induce brain plasticity. We evaluated the structural connectome of world‐class gymnasts (WCGs), as mapped by diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging probabilistic tractography and a multishell, multitissue constrained spherical deconvolution method to increase the precision of tractography at the tissue interfaces. The connectome was mapped in 10 Japanese male WCGs and in 10 age‐matched male controls. Network‐based statistic identified subnetworks with increased connectivity density in WCGs, involving the sensorimotor, default mode, attentional, visual, and limbic areas. It also revealed a significant association between the structural connectivity of some brain structures with functions closely related to the gymnastic skills and the D‐score, which is used as an index of the gymnasts' specific physical abilities for each apparatus. Furthermore, graph theory analysis demonstrated the characteristics of brain anatomical topology in the WCGs. They displayed significantly increased global connectivity strength with decreased characteristic path length at the global level and higher nodal strength and degree in the sensorimotor, default mode, attention, and limbic/subcortical areas at the local level as compared with controls. Together, these findings extend the current understanding of neural mechanisms that distinguish WCGs from controls and suggest brain anatomical network plasticity in WCGs resulting from long‐term intensive training. Future studies should assess the contribution of genetic or early‐life environmental factors in the brain network organization of WCGs. Furthermore, the indices of brain topology (i.e., connection density and graph theory indices) could become markers for the objective evaluation of gymnastic performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroyuki Tomita
- Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Chiba, Japan
| | - Koji Kamagata
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Christina Andica
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Wataru Uchida
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Makoto Fukuo
- Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Chiba, Japan
| | - Hidefumi Waki
- Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Chiba, Japan
| | - Hidenori Sugano
- Department of Neurosurgery, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yuichi Tange
- Department of Neurosurgery, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Takumi Mitsuhashi
- Department of Neurosurgery, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Matthew Lukies
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Akifumi Hagiwara
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Shohei Fujita
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akihiko Wada
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Toshiaki Akashi
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Syo Murata
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mutsumi Harada
- Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Chiba, Japan
| | - Shigeki Aoki
- Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hisashi Naito
- Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Chiba, Japan
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