Brain Plasticity and Motor Control—3rd Edition
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensory and Motor Neuroscience".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: sensorimotor integration; neural adaptation and learning; neurophysiology of musculoskeletal treatments; chronic pain processing; neural effects of exercise
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Brain plasticity is critical for motor control and learning. Adaptive or beneficial plasticity leads to improved motor control and performance. In contrast, maladaptive plasticity may lead to impaired motor control and decreased motor performance.
Intrinsic factors such as cortical dominance or genetics may affect the inherent capacity for plasticity during the acquisition of new motor skills. Extrinsic factors such as altered sensory input (e.g., due to pain, deafferentation, and dysafferentation) have the capacity to impact brain plasticity in either adaptive ways that lead to enhanced motor control and learning or through maladaptive ways that impair motor control and task performance. In order to understand how any given factor impacts brain plasticity and motor control, it is important to include experimental measures of brain plasticity (e.g., electroencephalography, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and functional magnetic resonance imaging), as well as performance measures of motor control, in the study design. A better understanding of brain plasticity and motor control can help to guide rehabilitation strategies, as well as helping to prevent situations that lead to maladaptive brain plasticity.
This Special Issue extends upon the first two editions in this series. It aims to collect articles that explore factors that impact the capacity for brain plasticity, both adaptive and maladaptive. These factors may be intrinsic factors or extrinsic. Both experimental studies and clinical studies are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Bernadette Murphy
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- brain
- neuroplasticity
- motor control
- sensorimotor integration
- sensory input
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