A new interdisciplinary study by researchers from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion reveals a surprising insight: local release of dopamine—a molecule best known for its role in the brain’s reward system—is a key factor in acquiring new motor skills

From writing and typing to playing a musical instrument or mastering a sport, learning movement-based tasks is one of the brain’s most complex challenges. This collaborative new study reveals how the brain reorganizes its neural networks during such skill learning and uncovers the vital role of dopamine in this process of motor learning.

The research, published in Nature Communications, was led by Dr. Hadas Benisty, Prof. Jackie Schiller, and M.D./Ph.D. student Amir Ghanayim, with contributions from Prof. Ronen Talmon and student Avigail Cohen-Rimon from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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