Training study

This project deals with training-induced brain plasticity. Draganski et al. in their 2004 report in Nature first reported grey matter volume increase in response to acquisition of juggling skill by volumetric MRI. Multiple confirmations of this effect followed, but initial intense interest waned as the limitations of non-quantitative measures were reached and the neural tissue responses underlying skill acquisition remained unproven. In this project, we apply novel microstructural MRI methods at 3T to describe, in unprecedented temporal and spatial detail, the effect of motor learning on the human brain at the tissue level in vivo. In healthy controls we report widespread transient and linear changes in both volumetric and myelinrelated signals in both the grey and white matter of the corticospinal and limbic systems in healthy individuals as they learn to master a complex motor task. The dynamic temporal and spatial interactions reveal coherent (i.e., correlated but time-lagged) waves of plasticity during motor learining, with brain areas responding in an elegant, choreographed fashion. Moreover, there is indication of a somatotopy of learning in the corticospinal tract at the level of the capsule interna as patients being trained on the lower limbs exhibited more myelination than controls trained on the upper limb (Azzarito et al., 2021, under review). We next embark on patient studies suffering from non-traumatic SCI at 7T.