Fig. 1: Experimental design, motor training task and longitudinal behavioral performance.
From: Neuronal plasticity during motor rehabilitation training after spinal cord injury
The experimental design (A) included magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition and training assessments at baseline (day 0), during the training period (days 7, 14, and 28), and at final retention assessment (day 84). Sixty minutes of supervised training in a motor-skill task was undertaken four times per week for 4 consecutive weeks (B), whereby participants were required to activate inputs with their hands or feet (depending on whether they were allocated to the upper (C) or lower limb (D) training groups) in response to rhythmic aural and visual stimuli in the dance game stepmania. The participant was tasked with selecting and activating the correct symbol at the precise moment the scrolling arrow overlapped with a set of static arrows at the top of the screen. Behavioral improvement, defined as the percentage of correct stimulus responses (%CSR), and response time (RT; the deviation in ms from the ideal response) were measured during a formal, standardized training assessment at weekly intervals (see methods). Spinal cord injured and healthy trainees values for these metrics are plotted as dots (blue: healthy trainees; red: spinal cord injured trainees; E: n = 35 and F: upper limb n = 18, lower limb n = 17), while participant-specific behavioral curves were computed (thin lines) along with the group median (thick line). Note that the results from the healthy controls trainees (blue lines) have been reported previously (Azzarito et al.17) and are shown for illustrative purposes. B–D Are adapted from Azzarito et al., NeuroImage (2023)17, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
