Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
J Neurophysiol. 2013 Apr;109(8):2077-85. doi: 10.1152/jn.00719.2012. Epub 2013 Jan 23.
Motor learning is reflected in changes to the brain's functional organization as a result of experience. We show here that these changes are not limited to motor areas of the brain and indeed that motor learning also changes sensory systems. We test for plasticity in sensory systems using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). A robotic device is used to elicit somatosensory inputs by displacing the arm in the direction of applied force during learning. We observe that following learning there are short latency changes to the response in somatosensory areas of the brain that are reliably correlated with the magnitude of motor learning: subjects who learn more show greater changes in SEP magnitude. The effects we observe are tied to motor learning. When the limb is displaced passively, such that subjects experience similar movements but without experiencing learning, no changes in the evoked response are observed. Sensorimotor adaptation thus alters the neural coding of somatosensory stimuli.
运动学习反映了大脑功能组织的变化，这是由于经验的结果。我们在这里表明，这些变化不仅限于大脑的运动区域，实际上，运动学习也会改变感觉系统。我们使用体感诱发电位（SEP）来测试感觉系统的可塑性。机器人设备用于通过在学习过程中向施加力的方向移动手臂来产生体感输入。我们观察到，在学习之后，大脑体感区域的反应会出现短潜伏期变化，并且与运动学习的幅度可靠相关：学习更多的受试者显示出 SEP 幅度更大的变化。我们观察到的效果与运动学习有关。当肢体被动移位时，即受试者经历相似的运动但没有经历学习时，不会观察到诱发反应的变化。因此，感觉运动适应改变了体感刺激的神经编码。
