Motor Plasticity Flashcards
What Broadmann’s areas make up the motor cortex?
4 and 6
Mechanisms of plasticity in the motor system
- Modification of synaptic efficacy
- Modification of synaptic structures and networks
- Modification of networks and pathways
- Modification of behavior
- Unmasking of existing connections
Important aspects of behavioral principles that drive motor plasticity
- Use it or lose it
- Specificity
- Repetition
- Novelty
Use it or lose it behavioral principle
Needs to be used to keep CNS representation
Specificity behavioral principle
Neurons that experience training are facilitated
Repetition behavioral principle
Stimuli repeated for plasticity to occur
Novelty behavioral principle
Adaptation occurs once learned
Skill training modification of motor system
Increased synaptic efficacy and synaptogenesis in M1
Strength training modification of motor system
Increased synaptic efficacy and synaptogenesis in spinal cord
Endurance training modification of motor system
Brain angiogenesis
Levels of the nervous system that undergo change with plasticity
Genetic, molecular
Cellular
Systems
Behavioral
Bidirectional plasticity
Learning with increased stimuli - activity
Learning with decreased stimuli - inactivity
Structural changes at cellular level to synapses and neurons
Dendritic arborization (more branches)
Dendritic spine density (more spines)
Synapse number
Synapse size
Axonal arborization
Functional changes at the cellular level to synapses and neurons
Excitatory post synaptic current
Inhibitory post synaptic current
Neuron firing frequency
Membrane resistance
Synaptic vesicle release
Structural changes at the systems level to pathways and networks
Brain regions thickness/volume
Increases gray matter
Motor cortex recognition
CST reorganization
Functional changes at the systems level to pathways and networks
Plasticity within a tract
Using circuitry from other pathways (related to brain redundancy)
Where can functional redundancy be observed
Within and across brain areas
How would an investigator map the motor cortex
Stimulate cortex electrically and see what movement results
When does plasticity occur
It’s always occurring
It’s a fundamental property of the CNS
Redundant motor pathways are critical for which form of plasticity
Unmasking of existing conditions
Motor plasticity occurs with
Both increased and decreased activity
Which type of training is most likely to influence motor maps in M1
Skill training
