Brain Representation of Acquisition in Humans of Motor-Sensory Skills

Interactions between the perceptual and motor systems are fundamental to the performance of complex motor tasks and are at the heart of the fine motor control required for the production of complex sounds such as speech production or playing a musical instrument. In such situations, the brain must learn to generate relevant motor commands to a sound-producing system with fixed physical characteristics, such as the vocal tract or a musical instrument.

No study has yet been able to directly test the dynamic aspect of this sensorimotor learning in an acoustic production task with fine motor control.

The Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital takes care of patients requiring awake surgery. During these procedures, a direct cortical recording, called electro-corticography, is performed in order to better delineate the tumor or epileptogenic resection area. Reference recordings are made in healthy areas at a distance from the lesion site making it possible to record normal brain activity.

In this case, we would propose to the patient to use a tool similar to the theremin (a musical instrument the size of a golf ball whose displacement in space modulates the frequency and the harmonics of a sound). The patient should therefore learn in order to create relevant motor patterns.