Neural Network Underlying Intermanual Skill Transfer in Humans

Physical practice with one hand results in performance gains of the other (un-practiced) hand, yet the role of sensory feedback and underlying neurophysiology is unclear. Healthy subjects learned sequences of finger movements by physical training with their right hand while receiving real-time movement-based visual feedback via 3D virtual reality devices as if their immobile left hand was training. This manipulation resulted in significantly enhanced performance gain with the immobile hand, which was further increased when left-hand fingers were yoked to passively follow right-hand voluntary movements. Neuroimaging data show that, during training with manipulated visual feedback, activity in the left and right superior parietal lobule and their degree of coupling with motor and visual cortex, respectively, correlate with subsequent left-hand performance gain. These results point to a neural network subserving short-term motor skill learning and may have implications for developing new approaches for learning and rehabilitation in patients with unilateral motor deficits.