Learning a novel movement requires functional connectivity changes within primary motor cortex (M1)

Introduction: Recent studies provided strong evidence that training, differential use and alterations in behaviour caused plastic adaptational changes in the functional architecture of the human brain. Here we asked whether learning of a novel synergic movement requires changes in functional connectivity between the central representations of the participating muscle groups inside the primary motor cortex (M1). Methods: To address this issue we employed a co-contraction paradigm in which 19 participants learned a novel synergic movement consisting of contraction of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and the delt…