Functional and structural plasticity after motor skill learning: A TMS and VBM study

Introduction: Recent imaging studies provided compelling evidence that structural brain alterations in adult human subjects are already detectable after 5 days of intervention. However, it is still unclear if such structural changes could also be induced by the acquisition of a new motor skill. Furthermore, the relationship between structural brain alterations and individual gains in motor performance still remain elusive. Material and Methods: In the present study, healthy right-handed individuals had to perform a sequential pinch force task (SPFT) with their dominant hand on five consecutive days (p=0.003). We…