Disorders

Research Grant - 2024

Research Category: Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Award

Dr Wei-Yeh Liao was the recipient of Brain Foundation grant funding in 2024

Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Award

Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Award
Modulating cortical plasticity and connectivity to improve motor learning in older adults
Dr Wei-Yeh Liao
University of Adelaide

Watch Dr Wei-Yeh Liao accept the Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Award and hear a bit about his research.

Project Summary:

As we age, it becomes more and more difficult to adapt our movements in response to changes in our immediate surroundings (like trying to walk on a moving train). This age-related decline may be due to changes in the brain’s capacity to modify behaviour, a process known broadly as neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity helps regulate two important brain areas that work together and help adapt movement: the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), which plans appropriate movements; and the primary motor cortex (M1), which takes these plans and executes them. While the ageing process is expected to modify PMd-M1 communication, the mechanisms underpinning this decline remain unclear. Therefore, I investigated how PMd-M1 communication changes in older adults, and whether strengthening this communication can enhance movement adaptation.

To achieve this, I used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to explore the connections between PMd and M1 in young and older adults. Although my first study demonstrated a weaker influence of PMd on some parts of M1 within older adults, my second study suggested that neuroplasticity involving PMd and M1 is preserved with advancing age. In my final study, I investigated whether enhancing this communication using plasticity-boosting repetitive TMS to PMd could improve movement adaptation in older adults. However, the intervention had no effect, suggesting that the behavioural role of PMd is altered in older adults. Nonetheless, the studies in this thesis provide new insights into PMd-M1 communication and how it changes with age, with important implications for plasticity and learning in older adults.

Click here to read more about the Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Prize.

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