title: Learning in the Rodent Motor Cortex.
abstract: The motor cortex is far from a stable conduit for motor commands and instead undergoes significant changes during learning. An understanding of motor cortex plasticity has been advanced greatly using rodents as experimental animals. Two major focuses of this research have been on the connectivity and activity of the motor cortex. The motor cortex exhibits structural changes in response to learning, and substantial evidence has implicated the local formation and maintenance of new synapses as crucial substrates of motor learning. This synaptic reorganization translates into changes in spiking activity, which appear to result in a modification and refinement of the relationship between motor cortical activity and movement. This review presents the progress that has been made using rodents to establish the motor cortex as an adaptive structure that supports motor learning.
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology Section, Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, and Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: peters.andrew.j@gmail.com , haliu@ucsd.edu , tkomiyama@ucsd.edu.|UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology Section, Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, and Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: peters.andrew.j@gmail.com , haliu@ucsd.edu , tkomiyama@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Haixin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Neurobiology Section, Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, and Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093; email: peters.andrew.j@gmail.com , haliu@ucsd.edu , tkomiyama@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Takaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komiyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D012377:Rodentia; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: motor cortex; motor learning; movement; neural circuits; plasticity; rodents