- When learning takes place, the effort an organism must exude to complete the task decreases
- Decreased "effort" is represented by changes to the electrical firing in the brain, and decreased metabolic activity (maintaining internal state), showing greater efficiency of completing tasks

Changes to Activity Level in M1

- Previous scans of the human brain have shown an association between a larger M1 and increased learning 
- Specifically, when scans of the precentral gyrus (region of the brain closely associated with the M1) were taken, it showed a significantly larger gyrus in piano vs. non-piano players (especially in the "hand" region)

Changes to the Size of the M1

- When TMS stimulated M1 neurons acutely in human participants, it caused the thumb to move in a certain direction 
- When participants practiced moving their thumb in the opposite direction for 15-30 min, they saw the TMS caused their thumb to move that way instead, before going back to the direction it initially caused
- This shows learning in the M1

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Cortical Remodeling 

- As an organism continues to repeat the same movement over and over (such as grasping an object, or being able to point at an object) it will take less "effort" for the brain to initiate this movement
- This makes the organism more efficient in its ability to complete certain tasks
- This is evidence of an organism's ability to learn

Smith College

- Region of the brain involved in the initiation of movement 
- Specific regions of the motor cortex are associated with the movement of individual body parts/muscles ("maps" of M1 exhibit this concept)
- The M1 exhibits "learning" when movement is habituated

Primary Motor Cortex (M1)

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

- As show below, different regions of the body will take up dispropriate amounts of space in the M1
- Another way of visualizing this phenomena is through the "motor homunculus" which shows a figure's body parts enlarged to various degrees, based on the space it takes up in the motor cortex 
- However, this has been described as "oversimplifying"  the organization of the M1, which can be increasingly complex

Size Breakdown of M1

Learning and the M1

Primary Motor Cortex Library 

- Recent studies have looked at the cell types that constitute the M1, and have utilized a cell population known as cortico-motoneuronal cells (CM) to differentiate between different regions of the M1 (described as "old" vs "new")

Learn Before

Related

Learn After