Projection from the sensory to the motor cortex is important in learning motor skills in the monkey

Abstract

1. The projection from the somatosensory cortex to the primary motor cortex has been proposed to play an important role in learning novel motor skills. This hypothesis was examined by studying the effects of lesions to the sensory cortex on learning of new motor skills. 2. We used two experimental paradigms to reveal the effects of lesions on learning of new motor skills. One task was to catch a food pellet falling at various velocities. The other task was to catch a food pellet from a rotating level. Both tasks required acquisition of novel motor skills. 3. The training was started after a lesion of the hand area in the somatosensory cortex of one hemisphere. In both tasks, monkeys had severe difficulty in learning the new skills with the hand contralateral to the ablated somatosensory cortex, compared with the hand contralateral to the intact hemisphere. 4. After acquisition of the motor skill in the hand contralateral to intact hemisphere, lesion of the somatosensory cortex hand area did not abolish the learned motor skill. 5. In control experiments, monkeys were trained to pick up a food pellet from a rotating board. This task did not necessitate acquisition of new motor skills, but could be performed by utilizing existing motor skills. Lesion in the somatosensory cortex before or after the training did not affect the execution of this task by either hand. 6. It is concluded that the corticocortical projection from the somatosensory to the motor cortex plays an important role in learning new motor skills, but not in the execution of existing motor skills.