Distinct patterns of connectivity with the motor cortex reflect different components of sensorimotor learning

by Corson N. Areshenkoff, Anouk J. de Brouwer, Daniel J. Gale, Joseph Y. Nashed, Jonathan Smallwood, J. Randall Flanagan, Jason P. Gallivan

Sensorimotor learning is supported by multiple competing processes that operate concurrently, making it a challenge to elucidate their neural underpinnings. Here, using human functional MRI, we identify 3 distinct axes of connectivity between the motor cortex and other brain regions during sensorimotor adaptation. These 3 axes uniquely correspond to subjects’ degree of implicit learning, performance errors and explicit strategy use, and involve different brain networks situated at increasing levels of the cortical hierarchy. We test the generalizability of these neural axes to a separate form of motor learning known to rely mainly on explicit processes and show that it is only the Explicit neural axis, composed of higher-order areas in transmodal cortex, that predicts learning in this task. Together, our study uncovers multiple distinct patterns of functional connectivity with motor cortex during sensorimotor adaptation, the component processes that these patterns support, and how they generalize to other forms of motor learning.