Dissecting motor skill acquisition: Spatial coordinates take precedence.

Practicing a previously unknown motor sequence often leads to the consolidation of motor chunks, which enable its accurate execution at increasing speeds. Recent imaging studies suggest the function of these structures to be more related to the encoding, storage, and retrieval of sequences rather than their sole execution. We found that optimal motor skill acquisition prioritizes the storage of the spatial features of the sequence in memory over its rapid execution early in training, as proposed by Hikosaka in 1999.

Impact of interhemispheric inhibition on bimanual movement control in young and old.

Interhemispheric interactions demonstrate a crucial role for directing bimanual movement control. In humans, a well-established paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigm enables to assess these interactions by means of interhemispheric inhibition (IHI). Previous studies have examined changes in IHI from the active to the resting primary motor cortex during unilateral muscle contractions; however, behavioral relevance of such changes is still inconclusive.

Data-efficient iterative training of Gaussian approximation potentials: Application to surface structure determination of rutile IrO and RuO.

Machine-learning interatomic potentials, such as Gaussian Approximation Potentials (GAPs), constitute a powerful class of surrogate models to computationally involved first-principles calculations. At a similar predictive quality but significantly reduced cost, they could leverage otherwise barely tractable extensive sampling as in global surface structure determination (SSD). This efficiency is jeopardized though, if an a priori unknown structural and chemical search space as in SSD requires an excessive number of first-principles data for the GAP training.

Intact procedural learning and motor intracortical inhibition in adult neurofibromatosis type 1 gene carriers.

Objective: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is known to cause learning deficits in affected individuals. There has been evidence linking altered gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) mediated inhibition to learning impairments in rodent models and humans with NF1. Still, evidence on the role of GABA in learning deficits associated with NF1 is inconclusive.

Multifocal stimulation of the cerebro-cerebellar loop during the acquisition of a novel motor skill.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)-based interventions for augmenting motor learning are gaining interest in systems neuroscience and clinical research. Current approaches focus largely on monofocal motorcortical stimulation. Innovative stimulation protocols, accounting for motor learning related brain network interactions also, may further enhance effect sizes.