Assessing the role of the motor cortex in visuomotor memory
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1
The University of Queensland, HMS, Australia
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2
The University of Queensland, Australia
Reaching to an object requires translation of visual information about its position into motor commands that bring the hand to the correct location in space. Humans can learn new internal maps for such visuomotor transformations when environmental conditions change, such as when the apparent position of the limb endpoint is rotated in virtual reality experiments. Moreover, the rate at which people learn to compensate such visuomotor rotations is higher if they have previously adapted to the same perturbation; a phenomenon known as “savings”. Although multiple brain areas are known to contribute to visuomotor adaptation, including the cerebellum, motor cortex and posterior parietal cortex, the neural mechanisms that underlie savings are unclear. Here we used cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to study the role of the motor cortex (M1) in retention and savings of visuomotor learning. Fifty-one participants learned to compensate a 30° visuomotor rotation that was introduced either gradually (in 0.3° increments) or abruptly over 300 trials. They then performed 60 trials without rotation, to “washout’ the adaptation, before abrupt re-exposure to the same 30° visuomotor rotation to assess savings. Cathodal tDCS stimulation or sham stimulation was applied to the left motor cortex during initial adaptation (~12 min). As cathodal tDCS decreases neuronal excitability and can impair memory formation, we predicted that savings should be impaired by stimulation if motor cortex is important for retention of the visuomotor memory. A main effect for stimulation (F(1,47)=4.25,p=0.04), confirmed that mean error in the first 12 savings trials was greater in tDCS than sham groups. The results show that the motor cortex is involved in the retention of visuomotor memory and contributes to faster re-learning of previously encountered visuomotor skills.
Keywords:
Motor Cortex,
tDCS,
visuomotor rotation,
savings,
Visuomotor memory
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Memory and Learning
Citation:
Alavi
H,
Riek
S,
Marinovic
W and
Carroll
T
(2015). Assessing the role of the motor cortex in visuomotor memory.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00011
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Hesam Alavi, The University of Queensland, HMS, Brisbane, Australia, hesamalavi27@yahoo.com