Motor Sequence Learning

Using chronically implanted electrodes connected to a bidirectional sensing and stimulation DBS device, we seek to map the neural architecture of human motor skill learning in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Figure with two illustrations that show the multisite chronic wireless brain implants used in these experiments — **Figure 1.** Multisite chronic wireless brain implants targeting motor cortex and basal ganglia. Patients are implanted with bidirectional quadripolar DBS leads.

Two-panel figure how neural activity is recorded during these experiments — **Figure 2. Experimental paradigm.** Neural activity is recorded while patients perform a 5-day motor sequence learning task and while they sleep at night between days of the task.

Four-panel figure showing neural activity during motor planning — **Figure 3. Using motor planning neural activity (prior to the onset of movement) to predict the identity of an upcoming sequence.**
A) S2-S1 difference in patient 1 trial-median spectral power. Spectral power normalized within frequency across trials for visual clarity of higher frequencies. B) p-values for S1 vs. S2 raw spectral power. C) S1 vs S2 classifications accuracies. D) Percent accuracy drop after feature permutation testing.

Two-panel figure showing different learning-related electrophysiological events during sleep. — **Figure 4. Classifying learning-related electrophysiological events during sleep.** A) Automated detection of slow oscillation, delta waves and spindles. B) Motor replay detection via correlation of template neural activity during online performance with neural activity during sleep.

Featured Publications & Presentations:

Presbrey, K., Louie, K., Yaroshinsky, M., Starr, P., Wang, D. (2021). Beta Dynamics in Initial Motor Sequence Learning in Parkinson’s And Dystonia. 50th Annual Society for Neuroscience Meeting.