Abstract #2045

White matter microstructure associated with functional connectivity changes following short-term learning of a visuomotor sequence

Stefanie A. Tremblay^1,2, Anna-Thekla Jäger³, Julia Huck¹, Chiara Giacosa¹, Stephanie Beram¹, Uta Schneider³, Sophia Grahl³, Arno Villringer^3,4,5,6, Christine Lucas Tardif^7,8, Pierre-Louis Bazin^3,9, Christopher J Steele^3,10, and Claudine J. Gauthier^1,2

¹Physics, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ²Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada, ³Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, ⁴Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig, Germany, ⁵Leipzig University Medical Centre, IFB Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig, Germany, ⁶Collaborative Research Centre 1052-A5, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, ⁷Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ⁸Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada, ⁹Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ¹⁰Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

To characterize the temporal dynamics of plasticity, we conducted a longitudinal MRI study at ultra-high field (7T) during the learning process of a sequential visuomotor task, in a learning and control group. WM microstructure was altered in the tracts underlying the primary motor and sensorimotor cortices, and in tracts adjacent to the right supplementary motor area (SMA), where changes in functional connectivity were also found in this cohort. Our study provides evidence for short-term white matter plasticity in the sensorimotor network, where the SMA would play a key role in linking the spatial and motor aspects of motor sequence learning.

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