Sensorimotor Basis of Speech Motor Learning and Retention

Summary

The overall goal of this research is to test a new model of speech motor learning, whose central hypothesis is that learning and retention are associated with plasticity not only in motor areas of the brain but in auditory and somatosensory regions as well. The strategy for the proposed research is to identify individual brain areas that contribute causally to retention by disrupting their activity with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Investigators will also use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which will enable identification of circuit-level activity which predicts either learning or retention of new movements, and hence test the specific contributions of candidate sensory and motor zones. In other studies, investigators will record sensory and motor evoked potentials over the course of learning to determine the temporal order in which individual sensory and cortical motor regions contribute. The goal here is to identify brain areas in which learning-related plasticity occurs first and which among these areas predict subsequent learning.

Description

Eligibility

Age range

18–40 years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Interventions

• Device
  fMRI

  To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.

• Behavioral
  Adaptation

  Auditory adaptation in speech

• Behavioral
  Adaptation

  Auditory baseline in speech

Location