Review of Motor Learning & Performance: From Principles to Practice.

1993 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1336-1336
Author(s):  
Terri Gullickson ◽  
Pamela Ramser
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corson N Areshenkoff ◽  
Daniel J Gale ◽  
Joe Y Nashed ◽  
Dominic Standage ◽  
John Randall Flanagan ◽  
...  

Humans vary greatly in their motor learning abilities, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie this variability. Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies demonstrate that large-scale neural dynamics inhabit a low-dimensional subspace or manifold, and that learning is constrained by this intrinsic manifold architecture. Here we asked, using functional MRI, whether subject-level differences in neural excursion from manifold structure can explain differences in learning across participants. We had subjects perform a sensorimotor adaptation task in the MRI scanner on two consecutive days, allowing us to assess their learning performance across days, as well as continuously measure brain activity. We find that the overall neural excursion from manifold activity in both cognitive and sensorimotor brain networks is associated with differences in subjects' patterns of learning and relearning across days. These findings suggest that off-manifold activity provides an index of the relative engagement of different neural systems during learning, and that intersubject differences in patterns of learning and relearning across days are related to reconfiguration processes in cognitive and sensorimotor networks during learning.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Birklbauer

This thesis addresses different manifestations and practical implementations of movement variability in respect to their beneficial effects on movement coordination and learning. The focal point of this topic is formed by the comparison between the contextual interference paradigm and the differential learning approach, representing two variable practice strategies found to improve motor learning performance under certain conditions. The theoretical backgrounds and empirical findings of each approach are thoroughly reviewed in the first part of this work. These theoretical concepts, and their resultant practical training approaches, arrive at the notion of an optimal magnitude and structure of movement variability that should be encouraged during practice. The second part of this work presents a parallelgroup study designed to contrast the effects of a high contextual interference and schema-based practice regime with two variants of differential training on the adoption of two indoor hockey skills in beginners.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Orand ◽  
Junichi Ushiba ◽  
Yutaka Tomita ◽  
Satoashi Honda

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bita Imam ◽  
Tal Jarus

Objectives.To identify the virtual reality (VR) interventions used for the lower extremity rehabilitation in stroke population and to explain their underlying training mechanisms using Social Cognitive (SCT) and Motor Learning (MLT) theoretical frameworks.Methods.Medline, Embase, Cinahl, and Cochrane databases were searched up to July 11, 2013. Randomized controlled trials that included a VR intervention for lower extremity rehabilitation in stroke population were included. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale was used to assess the quality of the included studies. The underlying training mechanisms involved in each VR intervention were explained according to the principles of SCT (vicarious learning, performance accomplishment, and verbal persuasion) and MLT (focus of attention, order and predictability of practice, augmented feedback, and feedback fading).Results.Eleven studies were included. PEDro scores varied from 3 to 7/10. All studies but one showed significant improvement in outcomes in favour of the VR group (P<0.05). Ten VR interventions followed the principle of performance accomplishment. All the eleven VR interventions directed subject’s attention externally, whereas nine provided training in an unpredictable and variable fashion.Conclusions.The results of this review suggest that VR applications used for lower extremity rehabilitation in stroke population predominantly mediate learning through providing a task-oriented and graduated learning under a variable and unpredictable practice.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dimitriou

AbstractIt is generally believed that task-dependent control of body configuration (‘posture’) is achieved by adjusting voluntary motor activity and transcortical ‘long-latency’ reflexes. Spinal monosynaptic circuits are thought not to be engaged in such task-level control. Similarly, being in a state of motor learning has been strongly associated only with an upregulation of feedback responses at transcortical latencies and beyond. In two separate experiments, the current study examined the task-dependent modulation of stretch reflexes by perturbing the hand of human subjects while they were waiting for a ‘Go’ signal to move at the different stages of a classic kinematic learning task (visuomotor rotation). Although the subjects had to resist all haptic perturbations equally, the study leveraged that task-dependent feedback controllers may already be ’loaded’ at the movement anticipation stage. In addition to an upregulation of short- and long-latency reflex gains during early exposure to the visual distortion, I found a relative inhibition of reflex responses in the ‘washout’ stage (sensory realignment state). For more distal muscles (brachioradialis), this inhibition also extended to the monosynaptic reflex response (‘R1’). These R1 gains reflected individual motor learning performance in the visuomotor task. The results demonstrate that the system’s ‘control policy’ in visuomotor adaptation can also include inhibition of proprioceptive reflexes, and that aspects of this policy can affect monosynaptic spinal circuits. The latter finding suggests a novel form of state-related control, probably realized by independent control of fusimotor neurons, through which segmental circuits can tune to higher-level features of a sensorimotor task.Additional InformationConflict of interestThe author declares no conflict of interest.Author contributionsM.D. devised, designed and implemented the project, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. The author approves the final version of the manuscript and is fully accountable for all aspects of the work. The experiments were performed at the Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Umeå University, Sweden.FundingThis work was financially supported through grants awarded to M.D. by the Kempe Foundation, the local Foundation for Medical Research (“Insamlingsstiftelsen”) and the Swedish Research Council (project 2016-02237).


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Ludolph ◽  
Thomas M. Ernst ◽  
Oliver M. Mueller ◽  
Sophia L. Goericke ◽  
Martin A. Giese ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe role of the cerebellum in error-based motor adaptation is well examined. In contrast, the involvement of the cerebellum in reward-based motor learning is less clear. In this study, we examined cerebellar involvement in a reward-based motor learning task, namely learning to control a virtual cart-pole system, over five consecutive days. Subjects with focal cerebellar lesions were compared to age-matched controls in terms of learning performance and underlying control mechanisms.Based on the overall balancing performance we have identified two subgroups of patients: (1) patients with learning performance comparable to healthy controls and (2) patients with decelerated learning, unsaturated learning progress after five days and decreased inter-manual transfer. Furthermore, we found that online learning is impaired while offline learning is partly preserved in cerebellar subjects. Regarding control mechanisms, decreased control performance was associated with impairments in predictive action timing.Voxel-wise lesion symptom mapping based on the two subgroups revealed strong associations between impairments in controlling the virtual cart-pole system and lesions in intermediate and lateral parts of lobules V and VI. These results together with previous reports suggest that the ability to predict the dynamics of the cart-pole system is an important factor for the reward-based skill acquisition process.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eoin N Molloy ◽  
Karsten Mueller ◽  
Nathalie Beinhoelzl ◽  
Maria Bloechl ◽  
Fabian Piecha ◽  
...  

The contribution of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to motor learning by inducing motor cortical plasticity remains controversial given diverse findings from positive preclinical data to negative findings in recent clinical trials. To empirically address this translational disparity, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a double-blind, randomized controlled study to assess whether 20 mg escitalopram improves sequence-specific motor performance and modulates cortical motor response in 64 healthy female participants. We found decreased left premotor cortex responses during sequence-specific learning performance comparing single dose and steady escitalopram state. Escitalopram plasma-levels negatively correlated with the premotor cortex response. We did not find evidence in support of improved motor performance after a week of escitalopram-intake. These findings do not support the conclusion that one-week escitalopram intake increases motor performance but could reflect early adaptive plasticity with improved neural processing underlying similar task performance when steady peripheral escitalopram levels are reached.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Brito ◽  
Enrica Montalban ◽  
Anika Pupak ◽  
Mercè Masana ◽  
Silvia Ginés ◽  
...  

AbstractMotor skills learning is classically associated with brain regions including cerebral and cerebellar cortices and basal ganglia. Less is known about the role of the hippocampus in the acquisition and storage of motor skills. Here we show that mice receiving a long-term training in the accelerating rotarod display marked transcriptional changes in the striatum and hippocampus when compared with short-term trained mice. We identify Egr1 as a modulator of gene expression in the hippocampus during motor learning. Using mice in which neural ensembles are permanently labeled in an Egr1 activity-dependent fashion we identify ensembles of Egr1-expressing pyramidal neurons in CA1 activated in short- and long-term trained mice in the rotarod task. When Egr1 is downregulated or these neuronal ensembles are depleted, motor learning is improved whereas their chemogenetic stimulation impairs motor learning performance. Thus, Egr1 organizes specific CA1 neuronal ensembles during the accelerating rotarod task that limit motor learning.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Ming Tang ◽  
Yutaka Oouchida ◽  
Meng-Xin Wang ◽  
Zu-Lin Dou ◽  
Shin-Ichi Izumi

Abstract Background:Imitative learning is highly effective from infancy to old age, but little is known about the effects of observing errors during imitative learning. This study aims to examine how observing errors affect imitative learning performance, to maximize the effects of imitative learning. Method:In the pre-training session, participants were instructed to pinch at the target force (8 N) with auditory feedback about generated force while watching videos of someone pinching a sponge at the target force. In the pre-test, participants pinched at the target force without viewing a model or receiving auditory feedback. In Experiment 1, in the main training session, participants imitated models while watching videos of pinching at either the incorrect force (error-mixed condition) or the target force (all-correct condition). Then, the exact force they generated in pinching was measured without receiving auditory feedback or viewing a model. In Experiment 2, using the same procedure in the pre-training and pre-test sessions, newly recruited participants watched pinching at incorrect forces (4 and 24 N) as the all-error condition and the correct force as the correct condition. Results: In Experiment 1, the average force was better in the error-mixed condition than in the correct condition. In Experiment 2, the average force in the correct condition was better than that in the error condition.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that observing error actions combined with correct actions affected imitation motor learning positively, because error actions contain what-not-to-do information about the target action, unlike correct actions, which provide more information to enhance imitative learning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 90-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Grundey ◽  
R. Amu ◽  
G. Batsikadze ◽  
W. Paulus ◽  
M.A. Nitsche

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