Plasticity in the human motor system induced by perceptual learning

This study examines the behavioral and neural mechanisms by which somatosensory training affects the human motor system. We have developed a technique, which combines psychophysical and neuroimaging procedures to examine plasticity in the resting-brain following perceptual learning in a somatosensory-discrimination task. We show that effects of perceptual learning are not local to sensory areas of the brain, but rather change functional connectivity (FC) between somatosensory and motor areas and notably between primary motor and premotor areas of the brain. In behavioral terms, somatosensory perceptual training improves the rate and extent of motor learning. The beneficial effects are substantially dependent upon cognitive involvement and skill acquisition in the sensory domain. Passive-movement training without perceptual learning is less able to induce plasticity in the motor system. Overall, this study suggests a distributed pattern of plasticity due to perceptual learning that spreads beyond traditional boundaries of the somatosensory system.