Neural markers of skill learning - a longitudinal twin study

Human skill learning depends on a complex interplay between practice, genes, and the environment.

Here, we perform the first longitudinal study of the neural basis of skill learning in a genetically informative sample. 50 monozygotic twin pairs are followed longitudinally as they train a complex auditory-motor skill, piano playing.

Neural mechanisms of learning are studied using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and state-of-the-art multivariate pattern analysis of functional MRI data.

Aim 1 is to identify neural markers, i.e. structural and functional features of the auditory-motor system measured at baseline, which predict rate of learning.

Aim 2 is to test a number of specific hypotheses concerning the distributed neural representations of acquired skills in auditory and motor brain regions.

Aim 3 is to test whether associations between neural markers and learning are signficantly driven by familiar factors, using cross-twin cross-trait modelling.

The project breaks new ground by addressing a number of fundamental questions at the research frontier concerning the role of gene-environment interplay for skill learning and its neural mechanisms, including the question of which neural features underpin genetic influences on rate of learning.

The new knowledge provided by the project may be highly relevant when developing clinical interventions for fine motor skill impairments, e.g. in Parkinson’s disease.