Department for Clinical and Movement Neuroscience, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Elife. 2021 Nov 23;10:e67355. doi: 10.7554/eLife.67355.
Skill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Some learning paradigms, particularly in the memory domain, are closely associated with gamma activity that is amplitude modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity, but whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill learning is unknown. Here, we addressed this question by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex to modulate theta-gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a non-hippocampal-dependent task. We demonstrated, and then replicated, a significant improvement in skill acquisition with theta-gamma tACS, which outlasted the stimulation by an hour. Our results suggest that theta-gamma activity may be a common mechanism for learning across the brain and provides a putative novel intervention for optimizing functional improvements in response to training or therapy.
技能学习是一种基本的适应过程，但机制仍不清楚。一些学习范式，特别是在记忆领域，与伽马活动密切相关，伽马活动的幅度受潜在 theta 活动相位调制，但这种嵌套活动模式是否也支持技能学习尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过使用经颅交流电刺激（tACS）在感觉运动皮层上调制运动技能获得过程中的 theta-gamma 活动来解决这个问题，这是一个非海马依赖任务的范例。我们证明并复制了 theta-gamma tACS 在技能获得方面的显著改善，这种改善持续了一个小时。我们的结果表明，theta-gamma 活动可能是大脑学习的共同机制，并为优化训练或治疗反应的功能改善提供了一种新的潜在干预措施。
