TY - JOUR TI - Neural excursions from manifold structure explain patterns of learning during human sensorimotor adaptation AU - Areshenkoff, Corson AU - Gale, Daniel J AU - Standage, Dominic AU - Nashed, Joseph Y AU - Flanagan, J Randall AU - Gallivan, Jason P A2 - Verstynen, Timothy A2 - Baker, Chris I A2 - Verstynen, Timothy VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/04/19 SP - e74591 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e74591 DO - 10.7554/eLife.74591 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74591 AB - Humans vary greatly in their motor learning abilities, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie this variability. Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies demonstrate that large-scale neural dynamics inhabit a low-dimensional subspace or manifold, and that learning is constrained by this intrinsic manifold architecture. Here, we asked, using functional MRI, whether subject-level differences in neural excursion from manifold structure can explain differences in learning across participants. We had subjects perform a sensorimotor adaptation task in the MRI scanner on 2 consecutive days, allowing us to assess their learning performance across days, as well as continuously measure brain activity. We find that the overall neural excursion from manifold activity in both cognitive and sensorimotor brain networks is associated with differences in subjects’ patterns of learning and relearning across days. These findings suggest that off-manifold activity provides an index of the relative engagement of different neural systems during learning, and that subject differences in patterns of learning and relearning are related to reconfiguration processes occurring in cognitive and sensorimotor networks. KW - functional MRI KW - brain networks KW - motor learning JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -