Neuronal Modifications During Visuomotor Association Learning Assessed by Electric Brain Tomography

Abstract

Summary: In everyday life specific situations need specific reactions. Through repetitive practice, such stimulus-response associations can be learned and performed automatically. The aim of the present EEG study was the illustration of learning dependent modifications in neuronal pathways during short-term practice of visuomotor associations. Participants performed a visuomotor association task including four visual stimuli, which should be associated with four keys, learned by trial and error. We assumed that distinct cognitive processes might be dominant during early learning e.g., visual perception and decision making. Advanced learning, however, might be indicated by increased neuronal activation in integration-and memory-related regions. For assessment of learning progress, visual-and movement-related brain potentials were measured and compared between three learning stages (early, intermediate, and late). The results have revealed significant differences between the learning stages during distinct time intervals. Related to visual stimulus presentation, Low Resolution Electromagnetic Brain Tomography (LORETA) revealed strong neuronal activation in a parieto-prefrontal network in time intervals between 100-400 ms post event and during early learning. In relation to the motor response neuronal activation was significantly increased during intermediate compared to early learning. Prior to the motor response (120-360 ms pre event), neuronal activation was detected in the cingulate motor area and the right dorsal premotor cortex. Subsequent to the motor response (68-430 ms post event) there was an increase in neuronal activation in visuomotor-and memory-related areas including parietal cortex, SMA, premotor, dorsolateral prefrontal, and parahippocampal cortex. The present study has shown specific time elements of a visuomotor-memory-related network, which might support learning progress during visuomotor association learning.

Contribution of the Premotor Cortex to Consolidation of Motor Sequence Learning in Humans During Sleep

“…It should be stressed that the results of the current experiment support a role of the premotor cortex in procedural motor memory consolidation, but that this does not exclude the involvement of other areas, such as supplementary motor area and parietal cortices, which are also involved in motor learning and represent a memoryrelevant network (Praeg et al 2006). Moreover, the results of the present study do not allow one to make assumptions about the relative contribution of these different areas to consolidation.…”

Coherence and phase locking of intracerebral activation during visuo- and audio-motor learning of continuous tracking movements

“…Second, most importantly for this experiment is that the lower alpha band reflects general task demands and attentional processes. We anticipated that these psychological processes (general task demands and attention) will be involved in visuomotor learning as studied here (Praeg et al 2005;Praeg et al 2006;Toni et al 2001). In addition, recent combined EEG and fMRI studies have elegantly shown that the alpha band negatively correlates with the BOLD response in parietal and frontal brain regions that are known to be involved in visuomotor control processes (Laufs et al 2006a;Laufs et al 2006b).…”

Cortical Connections Between Dorsal and Ventral Visual Streams in Humans: Evidence by TMS/EEG Co-Registration

“…More specifically, the posterior parietal cortex is usually involved in various cognitive tasks, as for example re-direction of attention (Rushworth et al 2003), visuo-spatial behaviour (Babiloni et al 2006;Thayer and Johnson 2006) or integration of visuo-motor information (Berndt et al 2002;Holz et al 2008;MacKay and Mendonça 1995;Praeg et al 2006). It is principally involved in planning and execution of actions and it is considered as part of the visual dorsal stream for action (Milner and Goodale 2006).…”

“…For example, the existence of complex patterns of activation during attention and/or visuo-spatial and visuo-motor tasks have been reported (Berndt et al 2002;Holz et al 2008;Praeg et al 2006;Thayer and Johnson 2006), indicating the involvement of both parietal and frontal areas but not clarifying the involvement and amount of functional connections among them (Berndt et al 2002;Holz et al 2008;Praeg et al 2006).…”