Double dissociation of sensorimotor interaction mediated by visual feedback during continuous de novo motor learning

Abstract

While the sensorimotor cortices are central neural substrates for motor control and learning, how the interaction between their subregions with visual cortices contributes to acquiring de novo visuomotor skills is poorly understood. We designed a continuous visuomotor task in fMRI where participants learned an arbitrary visuomotor mapping. To dissociate motor and somatosensory cortices functions, we manipulated visual feedback of a cursor such that they learned to control using fingers under two alternating conditions: online cursor feedback is available or unavailable except when a target is reached. We found double dissociation of fMRI activity in subregions of the sensorimotor and visual cortices and their interaction, which were mediated by the visual feedback. We also found a significant reduction in functional connectivity between somatosensory cortices and early visual cortices, which was highly correlated with performance improvement. These findings support the distinct interaction between subregions of sensorimotor cortices and visual cortices while highlighting the more dominant role of somatosensory cortices over motor cortices during de novo motor learning.