Konczak publishes with German research team in Human Brain Mapping

Jürgen Konczak, Director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory in the School of Kinesiology, has published a paper entitled Motor training‐related brain reorganization in patients with cerebellar degeneration in the December 2021 edition of the scientific journal Human Brain Mapping. The cerebellum is a major neural site involved in motor control and learning. The study explored whether people with a degeneration of the cerebellum can still learn motor skills and if extra verbal and proprioceptive feedback can enhance their learning. Unfortunately, patients did not benefit from such explicit feedback. Related brain imaging data showed that cerebellar degeneration induced an increase in gray matter in the premotor cortex, which is a major target of cerebellar output. This implies that the brain reorganizes itself as neurons in the cerebellum die. The project was funded through a grant by the German Science Foundation to Drs. Dagmar Timmann and Konczak.