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At least 361 records · Page 20Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Composition and decomposition of internal models in motor learning under altered kinematic and dynamic environments.

The learning process of reaching movements was examined under novel environments whose kinematic and dynamic properties were altered. We used a kinematic transformation (visuomotor rotation), a dynamic transformation (viscous curl field), and a combination of these transformations. When the subjects learned the combined transformation, reaching errors were smaller if the subject first learned the separate kinematic and dynamic transformations. Reaching errors under the kinematic (but not the dynamic) transformation were smaller if subjects first learned the combined transformation. These results suggest that the brain learns multiple internal models to compensate for each transformation and has some ability to combine and decompose these internal models as called for by the occasion.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The learning of motor skills: sports science and ergonomics perspectives.

The paper describes some of the common origins of ergonomics and sports science in the UK with particular reference to research on motor learning. Attention is drawn to the value of analytical methods developed by ergonomists in deriving training prescriptions and their relationship with conventional learning theory is discussed. The cognitive revolution, which in the last 25 years has changed the face of psychology, has also had its impact on ergonomics and basic research on motor skills. The role of cognitive processes in motor learning is being reassessed and there is a renewed interest in topics such as verbal instruction, imitation, imagery, and mental practice which to earlier generations of behavioural scientists appeared beyond the scope of scientific investigation. The paper outlines some recent research into the role of imagery in motor learning illustrating these new approaches.

Attention↗
PubMed2005

The effect of early musical training on adult motor performance: evidence for a sensitive period in motor learning.

This experiment demonstrates that musicians who began training before age seven perform better on a rhythmic tapping task than musicians who began after the age of seven, when the two groups are matched for years of experience. These results support the idea that there may be a sensitive period in childhood for motor training, similar to that observed for language learning.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Changes in brain activity during motor learning measured with PET: effects of hand of performance and practice.

The aim of this study is to assess brain activity measured during continuous performance of design tracing tasks. Three issues were addressed: identification of brain areas involved in performing maze and square tracing tasks, investigation of differences and similarities in these areas related to dominant and nondominant hand performance, and most importantly, examination of the effects of practice in these areas. A total of 32 normal, right-handed subjects were instructed to move a pen with the dominant right hand (16 subjects) or nondominant left hand (16 subjects) continuously through cut-out maze and square patterns with their eyes closed during a 40-s positron emission tomography (PET) scan to measure regional blood flow. There were six conditions: 1) holding the pen on a writing tablet without moving it (rest condition); 2) tracing a maze without practice; 3) tracing the same maze after 10 min of practice; 4) tracing a novel maze; and tracing an easily learned square design at 5) high or 6) low speed. To identify brain areas generally related to continuous tracing, data analyses were performed on the combined data acquired during the five tracing scans minus rest conditions. Areas activated included: primary and secondary motor areas, somatosensory, parietal, and inferior frontal cortex, thalamus, and several cerebellar regions. Then comparisons were made between right- and left-hand performance. There were no significant differences in performance. As for brain activations, only primary motor cortex and anterior cerebellum showed activations that switched with hand of performance. All other areas, with the exception of the midbrain, showed activations that were common for both right- and left-hand performance. These areas were further analyzed for significant conditional effects. We found patterns of activation related to velocity in the contralateral primary motor cortex, related to unskilled performance in right premotor and parietal areas and left cerebellum, related to skilled performance in supplementary motor area (SMA), and related to the level of capacity at which subjects were performing in left premotor cortex, ipsilateral anterior cerebellum, right posterior cerebellum and right dentate nucleus. These findings demonstrate two important principles: 1) practice produces a shift in activity from one set of areas to a different area and 2) practice-related activations appeared in the same hemisphere regardless of the hand used, suggesting that some of the areas related to maze learning must code information at an abstract level that is distinct from the motor performance of the task itself.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Conceptual and motor learning in music performance.

Are the mental plans for action abstract or specified in terms of the movements with which they are produced? We report motor independence for expert music performance but not for novice performance in a transfer-of-learning task. Skilled adult pianists practiced musical pieces and transferred to new pieces with the same or different motor (hand and finger) requirements and conceptual (melodic) relations. Greatest transfer in sequence duration was observed when the same conceptual relations were retained from training to transfer, regardless of motor movements. In a second experiment, novice child pianists performed the same task. More experienced child pianists showed transfer on both the motor and the conceptual dimensions; the least experienced child pianists demonstrated transfer only to sequences with identical motor and conceptual dimensions. These findings suggest that mental plans for action become independent of the required movements only at advanced skill levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Predictive motor learning of temporal delays.

Anticipatory responses can minimize the disturbances that result from the action of one part of the body on another. Such a predictive response is evident in the anticipatory increase in grip force seen when one hand pulls on an object held in the other hand, thereby preventing the object from slipping. It is postulated that such a response depends on predicting the consequences of the descending motor command, as signaled by efference copy, using an internal model of both one's own body and the object. Here we investigate how the internal model learns the temporal consequences of the motor command. We employed two robots to simulate a virtual object held in one hand and acted on by the other. Delays were introduced between the action of one hand on the object and the effects of this action on the other hand. An initial reactive grip force response to the delayed load decayed with the development of appropriate anticipatory grip force modulation. However, no predictive modulation was seen when the object's movement was not generated by the subject, even when the motion was cued by a tone. These results suggest that, when an internal model learns new temporal relationships between actions and their consequences, this learning involves generating a novel response rather than adapting the original predictive response.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Methods for the biomechanical description of different patterns of postural rearrangement in the motor learning of dogs].

The biomechanical description of spatial transfer of quadruped center of gravity is elaborated on the basis of analysis of vertical components of support pressures. The methods of evaluation of posture reconstruction pattern (coefficient of diagonally at all) are presented. The role of motor cortex in postural pattern reorganization in the process of learning in dogs is investigated by mean of this methods.

Animals↗
PubMed2026

Not just when, but how: An exploratory dual-control approach to video feedback in motor learning.

The present study provides exploratory evidence for a novel dual-control paradigm. It examines whether combining temporal over video feedback timing with learner-controlled interactive playback functions (pause, slow-motion, rewind) would enhance motor skill acquisition beyond temporal autonomy alone. Sixty-four novice adults were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: Full Control (self-controlled timing + interactive replay), Partial Control (self-controlled timing + non-interactive replay), Yoked Full Control (externally controlled timing + interactive replay), or Yoked Partial Control (externally controlled timing + non-interactive replay). Motor accuracy (Radial Error), movement consistency (Bivariate Variable Error), technical execution, and self-efficacy were assessed at pre-test, 24-h retention, and 72-h retention following two acquisition sessions on a dart-throwing task (120 trials total). The Full Control group demonstrated the greatest and most durable learning gains across all outcomes. The Group × Time interaction was significant across all dependent variables (η2ₚ ranging from 0.140 to 0.234), with Full Control demonstrating superior retention at both 24 and 72 h relative to other groups (though differences relative to Partial Control were more pronounced at 72-h retention). Critically, the Yoked Full Control group showed comparatively weaker outcomes despite access to the same interactive playback functions. These findings suggest that interactive video tools may be most useful when learners can regulate both when feedback is accessed and how it is inspected. Theoretical and practical implications for the design of learner-centered video feedback systems are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effects of pentobarbital on spatial learning, motor coordination, and exploration.

Mice injected with either 8, 16 or 32 mg/kg of pentobarbital were as efficient as control subjects in learning and recalling the location of a submerged platform in a water maze. The highest dose of pentobarbital decreased fall latencies in the coat-hanger test of motor coordination. Exploratory activity was not affected by these doses of pentobarbital. The absence of a deficit in spatial learning and in exploratory activity occurred even at a dose sufficient to cause a deficit in motor coordination. These results stand in contrast to previous findings indicating spatial deficits in rats injected with benzodiazepines.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1993

Synaptic plasticity in the cerebellar cortex and its role in motor learning.

Synaptic plasticity plays a role in the learning capability of brain tissues. Long-term depression (LTD) of parallel fiber synapses in cerebellar Purkinje cells occurs when these synapses are activated in conjunction with climbing fiber synapses. Signal transduction mechanisms underlying LTD have recently been investigated extensively. It has also become apparent that climbing fiber signals encode errors in the motor performance of an animal. It is therefore hypothesized that learning proceeds in cerebellar tissues in such a way that error signals of climbing fibers act to depress by LTD those parallel fiber synapses responsible for the errors. The cerebellum contains a large number of corticonuclear microcomplexes. Each microcomplex is connected to an extracerebellar system and is presumed to endow the system with learning capability. The hypothesis accounts for the adaptation of the vestibuloocular reflex and probably also for other forms of motor and cognitive learning.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Central representation of time during motor learning.

This study stemmed from the observation that the brain of human as well as nonhuman primates is capable of forming and memorizing remarkably accurate internal representations of the dynamics of the arm. These dynamics establish a functional relation between applied force and ensuing arm motion, a relation that generally is quite complex and nonlinear. Current evidence shows that the motor control system is capable of adapting to perturbing forces that depend on motion variables such as position, velocity, and acceleration. The experiments we report here were aimed at establishing whether or not the motor system also may adapt to forces that depend explicitly on time rather than on motion variables. Surprisingly, the experiments suggest a negative answer. When asked to compensate for a predictable and repeated time-varying pattern of disturbing forces, subjects learned to counteract the disturbance by producing forces that did not depend on time but on the velocity and the position of the arm. We conclude from this evidence that time and time-dependent dynamics are not explicitly represented within the neural structures that are responsible for motor adaptation. Although our findings are not sufficient to rule out the presence of a timing structure within the central nervous system, they are consistent with other investigations that conspicuously failed to find evidence for such a central clock.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1999

Motor learning after unilateral brain damage.

Forty adults, post-stroke from anterior circulation unilateral cerebrovascular accident (approximately 2 years post onset) and 40 age-matched controls (M = 57 years) practiced a rapid, spatially and temporally constrained programmed action under one of two augmented feedback practice conditions. Participants in the stroke group used the upper limb ipsilateral to the lesion. After an extended practice period (198 trials), acquisition, retention, and reacquisition performance was assessed for accuracy and consistency and compared over trials, between groups and feedback conditions. Both stroke and control groups demonstrated significant improvement in accuracy and consistency over practice with relative persistence of these changes during retention. There were no differences between groups (stroke vs control) in performance patterns across trials for acquisition, retention, or reacquisition phases. In addition, there were no differential effects of the two augmented feedback conditions on performance and no interactions of feedback condition with group. However, independent of feedback condition, the stroke group performed with more error than did the control group during all experimental phases (i.e., acquisition, retention, reacquisition). These results suggest that unilateral stroke-related damage in the sensorimotor areas primarily effects the processes underlying the control and execution of motor skills but not the learning of those skills. Implications of these findings for physical rehabilitation are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

In a complex sequential movement, what component of the motor program is improved with intensive practice, sequence timing or ensemble motor learning?

We investigated whether the higher maximum speed of complex athletic movements attained by experts compared with novices might solely be ascribed to the acquisition of a more efficient timing of the initiation of the simple movements that comprise complex sporting gestures. Six novices in fencing and five experts in fencing performed three experimental series: 7 trials of touche, 7 trials of lunge (control series) and 50 trials of lunge + touche (test series), where the touche and lunge were initiated with different chronological sequences imposed by the experimenter. The lunge and the touche can be assimilated to a fast forward step and to a pointing task, respectively. We compared the maximum speed of touche between the two groups, recorded by an accelerometer fixed to the hand guard of the foil, and the speed of the centre of mass obtained from a force plate. The speed of the centre of mass was not statistically different between the two groups in the control and in the test series. The maximum speed of touche was not statistically different between the two groups in the control series. In contrast, in the test series, the maximum speed of touche was higher in the fencers' than in novices' groups, while the timing of initiation of the lunge and the touche was similar. The results of the test series show that the higher maximum speed of touche of fencers compared with novices cannot solely be ascribed to the acquisition of a more efficient initiation timing in motor programming. In a complex fencing gesture, the higher maximum speed of touche following intensive practice is discussed with regard to the inhibition of negative effects linked to the "refractory period" associated with the initiation of two closely spaced motor programs.

Adult↗