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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 586/17/4295    most recent jphysiol.2008.153445v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Google Scholar Articles by Wu, T. Articles by Hallett, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wu, T. Articles by Hallett, M. Related Collections Integrative Related Article

¹ Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Department of Neurology, Key Laboratory on Neurodegenerate Disorder of Ministry of Education, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
² Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

A crucial feature of the motor system is the ability to control some movements automatically. We have previously shown that all parts of the motor networks reduce their activity with automaticity, and, while this change may indicate increased efficiency in terms of neural processing, it is not clear how motor skill can be maintained after a reduction of neural activity. In the current study, we used functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate influences on the effective connectivity of the brain motor networks when movements become automatic. Subjects practiced a sequential movement until they could execute it automatically, and task-related brain fMRI activation was measured before and after they achieved automaticity. Using the psychophysiological interaction (PPI) method, we found that the cerebellum, cingulate motor area, supplementary motor area, and putamen had significantly greater connectivity, whereas the precuneus had less connectivity in the motor networks at the automatic stage. Our findings demonstrate that the importance of the attention networks decrease when movements become automatic. Moreover, the process of automaticity is accompanied by a strengthened interaction of central motor networks even though the magnitude of the activation is decreased. We speculate that this increase in connectivity reflects more efficient neural coding of movement at the automatic stage.

(Received 3 March 2008; accepted after revision 4 July 2008; first published online 10 July 2008)
Corresponding author M. Hallett: Bldg 10, Rm 5N226, 10 Center Drive MSC 1428, Bethesda, MD 20892-1428, USA.  Email: hallettm{at}ninds.nih.gov

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