Simultaneous Brain–Cervical Cord fMRI Reveals Intrinsic Spinal Cord Plasticity during Motor Sequence Learning
Fig 3
Neural correlates of motor sequence learning.
Distinct cortical, subcortical, and spinal clusters showed learning-related modulation in activity only during the CS condition. All clusters of activation are positively correlated with the performance speed. At the cortical level, the activation cluster was located in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex. At the subcortical level, one cluster was found in the contralateral putamen, while the other was observed in the ipsilateral lobule V-VI of the cerebellum. In the spinal cord, activation clusters were centered on the C7–C8 spinal segments, similar to those observed in the main effect of practice. The color bars indicate Z-score values; all activation maps are corrected for multiple comparisons using GRF, p < 0.01.