The involvement of the fronto-parietal brain network in oculomotor sequence learning using fMRI. Burke, M.
The involvement of the fronto-parietal brain network in oculomotor sequence learning using fMRI [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Tel:+44(0)1133435738 2 Abstract The basis of motor learning involves decomposing complete actions into a series of predictive individual components that form the whole. The present fMRI study provides the first investigation into areas of the human brain important for oculomotor short-term learning, by using a novel sequence learning paradigm that is equivalent in visual and temporal properties for both saccades and pursuit. In contrast with previous studies that have implemented a series of discrete ramps to observe predictive behaviour as evidence for learning, we presented a continuous sequence of interlinked components that better represents real-world tracking and gaze shifts. Our analogous pursuit and saccade task involves the learning of direction changes only (not velocity changes as is usually the case in pursuit) enabling more direct comparisons between the oculomotor subsystems. We implemented both a classic univariate fMRI analysis, followed by a further multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) within a priori regions of interest, to investigate oculomotor sequence learning in the brain. This study has uniquely identified an equivalent frontal-parietal network (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields and posterior parietal cortex) in both saccades and pursuit. In addition, this is the first study to investigate oculomotor sequence learning during fMRI brain imaging, and makes significant contributions to understanding the role of the dorsal networks in motor learning.

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