The role of the primary motor cortex during skill acquisition on a two-degrees-of-freedom movement task.

Full Abstract

One can partially eliminate motor skills acquired through practice in the hours immediately following practice by applying repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS) over the primary motor cortex. The disruption of acquired levels of performance has been demonstrated on tasks that are ballistic in nature. The authors investigated whether motor recall on a discrete aiming task is degraded following a disruption of the primary motor cortex induced via rTMS. Participants (N = 16) maintained acquired performance levels and patterns of muscle activity following the application of rTMS, despite a reduction in corticospinal excitability. Disruption of the primary motor cortex during a consolidation period did not influence the retention of acquired skill in this type of discrete visuomotor task.

Author information

Author/s: Shemmell, J (J); Riek, S (S); Tresilian, J R (JR); Carson, R G (RG);

Affiliation: Perception and Motor Systems Laboratory, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia. j-shemmel(-atsign-)northwestern.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of motor behavior (J Mot Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jan; vol 39 (issue 1) : pp 29-39

Dates: Created 2007/01/25; Completed 2007/03/01;

PMID: 17251169, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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