Abstract
Intervention-induced neuroplastic changes within the motor or cognitive system have been shown in the human brain. While cognitive and motor brain areas are densely interconnected, it is unclear whether this interconnectivity allows for a shared susceptibility to neuroplastic changes. Using the preparation for a theoretical exam as training intervention that primarily engages the cognitive system, we tested the hypothesis whether neuroplasticity acts across interconnected brain areas by investigating the effect on excitability and synaptic plasticity in the motor cortex. 39 healthy students (23 female) underwent 4 weeks of cognitive training while revision time, physical activity, concentration, fatigue, sleep quality and stress were monitored. Before and after cognitive training, cognitive performance was evaluated, as well as motor excitability using transcranial magnetic stimulation and long-term-potentiation-like (LTP-like) plasticity using paired-associative-stimulation (PAS). Cognitive training ranged individually from 1 to 7 h/day and enhanced attention and verbal working memory. While motor excitability did not change, LTP-like plasticity increased in an intensity-depending manner: the longer the daily revision time, the smaller the increase of neuroplasticity, and vice versa. This effect was not influenced by physical activity, concentration, fatigue, sleep quality or stress. Motor cortical plasticity is strengthened by a behavioural intervention that primarily engages cognitive brain areas. We suggest that this effect is due to an enhanced susceptibility to LTP-like plasticity, probably induced by heterosynaptic activity that modulates postsynaptic excitability in motorcortical neurones. The smaller increase of PAS efficiency with higher cognitive training intensity suggests a mechanism that balances and stabilises the susceptibility for synaptic potentiation.
Highlights
The human brain is plastic and optimises its functions in adaption to challenges
There were no significant effects of sex, age, topic of study, order of experiments or time of day on any of the neurophysiological or cognitive parameters (One-way a significant main effect of “cognitive training” (ANOVA); n.s.)
This study explored the effect of a period of cognitive training on cognitive performance and on the neural excitability and plasticity in the motor cortex
Summary
The human brain is plastic and optimises its functions in adaption to challenges. Several studies in humans have focused on the brain’s changes in the context of motor learning and described short- and long-term functional and structural changes (Sale et al 2017; Ziemann et al 2004; Gaser and Schlaug 2003; Rosenkranz et al 2007a, b). While these studies showed neuroplasticity within the motor or cognitive systems, fewer studies investigated training-induced effects across different brain systems, e.g. of physical exercise inducing structural changes in the cognitive network and improving cognitive performance The different areas of the brain are densely interconnected: especially the motor cortex represents an important node and processes information from various inputs (Tomasi and Volkow 2011). Several key structures of the cognitive network, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Takeuchi et al 2014), the posterior parietal cortex
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