The role of motor learning and sleep in the modulation of structural and functional long-range connectivity in the rodent brain (360G-Wellcome-109059_Z_15_A)

Learning new motor skills can trigger new myelin synthesis and induce changes in long-range structural and functional connections in the adult brain. Understanding the biological basis of neuroplasticity is critical for developing interventions for brain injury. It is still not clear, however, whether these structural and functional changes are related. It is also critical to find strategies to boost myelination and to identify whether it can support other types of learning. We aim to address these caveats by running three experiments. Firstly, we will investigate whether motor skill training increases electrophysiological coupling in somatosensory and motor task-relevant areas and whether this relates to changes in white-matter (WM) structure. We will also assess whether the deletion of the myelin regulatory factor (MyRF) can impair these processes. Secondly, sleep has been found to promote motor learning consolidation. We will study the role of sleep in these possible behavioural, WM and functional coupling changes by contrasting the effects of sleep and sleep deprivation in wild-type mice trained in a motor skill paradigm. Thirdly, we will investigate whether myelination is required for hippocampal-dependent learning by assessing the effects that training induces in WM structure and testing whether deleting MyRF or neurogenesis affects this process.