Motor Skill Acquisition Promotes Human Brain Myelin Plasticity

Abstract

Experience-dependent structural changes are widely evident in gray matter. Using diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), the neuroplastic effect of motor training on white matter in the brain has been demonstrated. However, in humans it is not known whether specific features of white matter relate to motor skill acquisition or if these structural changes are associated to functional network connectivity. Myelin can be objectively quantified in vivo and used to index specific experience-dependent change. In the current study, seventeen healthy young adults completed ten sessions of visuomotor skill training (10,000 total movements) using the right arm. Multicomponent relaxation imaging was performed before and after training. Significant increases in myelin water fraction, a quantitative measure of myelin, were observed in task dependent brain regions (left intraparietal sulcus [IPS] and left parieto-occipital sulcus). In addition, the rate of motor skill acquisition and overall change in myelin water fraction in the left IPS were negatively related, suggesting that a slower rate of learning resulted in greater neuroplastic change. This study provides the first evidence for experience-dependent changes in myelin that are associated with changes in skilled movements in healthy young adults.

Laterality of cerebellar afferent and efferent pathways in a healthy right‐handed population: A diffusion tensor imaging study

“…The FA value reflects the extent of motion of water molecules and provides information on white matter microstructure, such as axon caliber, fiber density, and myelination. Myelin shows plasticity, which could be the case throughout the entire lifespan (Fields, ; Lakhani et al, ; Sampaio‐Baptista et al, ). It was interesting that the non‐dominant CPCT had higher FA and TV values than the dominant CPCT in the right‐handed population of this study.…”

Compensatory motor network connectivity is associated with motor sequence learning after subcortical stroke

“…Neuroplastic change has recently been observed within the white matter microstructure of the brain following motor learning in young healthy individuals [32] and animals [33], Future studies are needed to evaluate the integral relationship between changes in white matter microstructure, BOLD gray matter response and degree of motor skill learning in the healthy individuals as well as individuals with chronic stroke.…”

Neuroglial interactions underpinning myelin plasticity

“…Several factors in the environment seem to be able to modulate white matter (Fields, 2008;Liu et al, 2012;Makinodan et al, 2012;Bergmann and Frisen, 2013;Etxeberria et al, 2016) and would therefore alter the conduction speed of neuronal signalling (Pajevic et al, 2014;Ford et al, 2015;Etxeberria et al, 2016;Arancibia-Carcamo et al, 2017). There is growing evidence indicating that learning a new skill might increase white matter volume, and findings demonstrating that myelination correlates with the learning observed (Hofstetter et al, 2013;Long and Corfas, 2014;Lakhani et al, 2016). For example, piano practicing during childhood has been associated with an increase in white matter volume and changes in the structure of various fiber tracts in adulthood, as measured with DTI (Bengtsson et al, 2005).…”