Sensorimotor cortex beta oscillations reflect motor skill learning ability after stroke.

Recovery of skilled movement after stroke is assumed to depend on motor learning. However, the capacity for motor learning and factors that influence motor learning after stroke have received little attention. In this study, we first compared motor skill acquisition and retention between well-recovered stroke patients and age- and performance-matched healthy controls.

Cortical beta oscillations are associated with motor performance following visuomotor learning.

People vary in their capacity to learn and retain new motor skills. Although the relationship between neuronal oscillations in the beta frequency range (15-30 Hz) and motor behaviour is well established, the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in motor learning are incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the degree to which measures of resting and movement-related beta power from sensorimotor cortex account for inter-individual differences in motor learning behaviour in the young and elderly.