title: Motor cortex is required for learning but not for executing a motor skill.
abstract: Motor cortex is widely believed to underlie the acquisition and execution of motor skills, but its contributions to these processes are not fully understood. One reason is that studies on motor skills often conflate motor cortex's established role in dexterous control with roles in learning and producing task-specific motor sequences. To dissociate these aspects, we developed a motor task for rats that trains spatiotemporally precise movement patterns without requirements for dexterity. Remarkably, motor cortex lesions had no discernible effect on the acquired skills, which were expressed in their distinct pre-lesion forms on the very first day of post-lesion training. Motor cortex lesions prior to training, however, rendered rats unable to acquire the stereotyped motor sequences required for the task. These results suggest a remarkable capacity of subcortical motor circuits to execute learned skills and a previously unappreciated role for motor cortex in "tutoring" these circuits during learning.
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Risa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Markman
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Poddar
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Antoniu L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Fantana
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Ashesh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Dhawale
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Adam R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kampff
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: olveczky@fas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Bence P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Ölveczky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005552:Forelimb / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D007051:Ibotenic Acid / Q000633:toxicity; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000293:injuries / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012201:Reward; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D007051:Ibotenic Acid