Functional relevance of ipsilateral motor cortex in the process of motor sequence learning in the elder

Objective: Functional anatomy of the human motor system changes during normal aging. Recent functional imaging data suggest that task-related activation during motor tasks is focused and lateralized in younger subjects but less focal and bilateral with advancing age. It is hypothesized that given a certain motor task, the aging brain recruits additional primary sensorimotor and premotor regions to compensate for drop of function. However, the role of the ipsilateral (to the moving hand) motor cortex for motor sequence learning is not completely understood. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that downr…