| Summary: | The time course of changes in regional cerebral perfusion during a continuous motor learning task performed
with the right hand was monitored using the arterial spin labeling (ASL) technique at high field (3 T). ASL
allowed measuring explicit learning related effects in neural activity elicited throughout a 6 minute task
period. During this time learning took place as demonstrated by performance improvement. Comparing the
initial and final learning phases, perfusion decreases were detected in most of the cortical regions recruited
during early learning. More interestingly however perfusion increases were observed in a few cortical and
subcortical regions of the contralateral hemisphere: the supplementary motor area, the primary somatosensory
area, the posterior insula and posterior putamen, the hippocampus and bilaterally the retrosplenial
cortex. Moreover, perfusion increases in the posterior putamen and hippocampus were highly correlated
during the learning period. These results support the hypothesis that the striatum and hippocampus form
interactive memory systems with parallel processing
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