Ji. Tracy et al., A comparison of 'Early' and 'Late' stage brain activation during brief practice of a simple motor task, COGN BRAIN, 10(3), 2001, pp. 303-316
This research study addresses the question: does the neural circuit impleme
nting a motor task undergo change as a function of even limited practice.!
To detect potential neural changes associated with limited practice we comp
ared brain activation at the early and late stages of motor performance on
a simple task over one relatively brief session. Single-finger opposition s
erved as cognitive stimulation during collection of BOLD fMRI signal. We pr
edicted prefrontal cortex activation would be prominent early, with basal g
anglia activation becoming prominent during late stage performance. Results
revealed that both early and late performance involve areas in the cerebel
lum, prefrontal, mid-temporal, extrastriate, and parietal cortices, but tha
t the particular regions within these broad areas differed for the two poin
ts of performance. The strongest dissociation between early and late perfor
mance involved the corpus striatum, thalamus, and cingulate gyrus. The find
ings suggested the neural circuit implementing this simple task varied over
a relatively brief window of practice. Implications for defining the neuro
cognitive function of the structures involved, particularly the cerebellum,
are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.