Assessing neurophysiological and behavioural outcomes of the proximal upper limb muscles in response to novel motor skill acquisition

Abstract

A single session of motor training with the distal upper limb muscles leads to changes in brain and spinal cord processing. However, the neuroplastic response of the proximal upper limb muscles to novel motor training has not been studied. The development of a proximal motor task which shows neurophysiological changes in response to motor learning will allow for future investigation of the neurophysiological changes associated with common occupational postures and movements, and provide a way to assess the neural consequences of ergonomic modifications on neural plasticity. This thesis found significant changes in neural activity, measured using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) following a single session of motor training session with the proximal upper limb task. Additionally, sex-based differences in motor task performance were seen for the proximal upper-limb task, indicating a male advantage to gross motor tasks, with no sex differences seen when the same task was performed using the thumb.