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Motor learning is associated with plasticity in both motor and somatosensory cortex. It is known from animal studies that tetanic stimulation to each of these areas individually induces long-term potentiation in its counterpart. In this context it is possible that changes in motor cortex contribute to somatosensory change and that changes in somatosensory cortex are involved in changes in motor areas of the brain. It is also possible that learning-related plasticity occurs in these areas independently. To better understand the relative contribution to human motor learning of motor cortical and somatosensory plasticity, we assessed the time course of changes in primary somatosensory and motor cortex excitability during motor skill learning. Learning was assessed using a force production task in which a target force profile varied from one trial to the next. The excitability of primary somatosensory cortex was measured using …