scholarly journals Assessing explicit strategies in force field adaptation

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1552-1565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Schween ◽  
Samuel D. McDougle ◽  
Mathias Hegele ◽  
Jordan A. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Force Production ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Force Field Adaptation ◽  
Novel Methods ◽  
Adaptation Task

While the contribution of explicit learning has been increasingly studied in visuomotor adaptation, its contribution to force field adaptation has not been studied extensively. We employed two novel methods to assay explicit learning in a force field adaptation task and found that learners can voluntarily control aspects of compensatory force production and manually report it with their untrained limb. This supports the general viability of the contribution of explicit learning also in force field adaptation.

scholarly journals Explicit strategies in force field adaptation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Schween ◽  
Samuel D. McDougle ◽  
Mathias Hegele ◽  
Jordan A. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Force Production ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Viscous Force ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Force Field Adaptation

AbstractIn recent years, it has become increasingly clear that a number of learning processes are at play in visuomotor adaptation tasks. In addition to the presumed formation of an internal model of the perturbation, learners can also develop explicit knowledge allowing them to select better actions in responding to a given perturbation. Advances in visuomotor rotation experiments have underscored the important role that such “explicit learning” plays in shaping adaptation to kinematic perturbations. Yet, in adaptation to dynamic perturbations, its contribution has been largely overlooked, potentially because compensation of a viscous force field, for instance, is difficult to assess by commonly-used verbalization-based approaches. We therefore sought to assess the contribution of explicit learning in learners adapting to a dynamic perturbation by two novel modifications of a force field experiment. First, via an elimination approach, we asked learners to abandon any cognitive strategy before selected force channel trials to expose consciously accessible parts of overall learning. Learners indeed reduced compensatory force compared to standard Catch channels. Second, via a manual reporting approach, we instructed a group of learners to mimic their right hand’s adaptation by moving with their naïve left hand. While a control group displayed negligible left-hand force compensation, the Mimic group reported forces that approximated right-hand adaptation but appeared to under-report the velocity component of the force field in favor of a more position-based component. We take these results to clearly demonstrate the contribution of explicit learning to force adaptation, underscoring its relevance to motor learning in general.New & NoteworthyWhile the role of explicit learning has recently been appreciated in visuomotor adaptation tasks, their contribution to force field adaptation has not been as widely acknowledged. To address this issue, we employed two novel methods to assay explicit learning in force field adaptation tasks and found that learners can voluntarily control aspects of force production and manually report them with their untrained limb. This suggests that an explicit component contributes to force field adaptation and may provide alternative explanations to behavioral phenomena commonly thought to reveal a complex organization of internal models in the brain.

scholarly journals Exploration of joint redundancy but not task space variability facilitates supervised motor learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (50) ◽  
pp. 14414-14419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puneet Singh ◽  
Sumitash Jana ◽  
Ashitava Ghosal ◽  
Aditya Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Force Field ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Dominant Hand ◽  
Task Space ◽  
Motor Variability ◽  
3D Space ◽  
Human Arm ◽  
Force Field Adaptation ◽  
Redundant Component

The number of joints and muscles in a human arm is more than what is required for reaching to a desired point in 3D space. Although previous studies have emphasized how such redundancy and the associated flexibility may play an important role in path planning, control of noise, and optimization of motion, whether and how redundancy might promote motor learning has not been investigated. In this work, we quantify redundancy space and investigate its significance and effect on motor learning. We propose that a larger redundancy space leads to faster learning across subjects. We observed this pattern in subjects learning novel kinematics (visuomotor adaptation) and dynamics (force-field adaptation). Interestingly, we also observed differences in the redundancy space between the dominant hand and nondominant hand that explained differences in the learning of dynamics. Taken together, these results provide support for the hypothesis that redundancy aids in motor learning and that the redundant component of motor variability is not noise.

scholarly journals Variable training but not sleep improves consolidation of motor adaptation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thürer ◽  
Frederik D. Weber ◽  
Jan Born ◽  
Thorsten Stein
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
Motor Memory ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Dominant Hand ◽  
Motor Tasks ◽  
Task Execution ◽  
Force Field Adaptation ◽  
Dependent Tasks ◽  
Adaptation Task

How motor memory consolidates still remains elusive. Motor tasks’ consolidation were shown to depend on periods of sleep, whereas pure non-hippocampal dependent tasks, like motor adaptation, might not. Some research suggests that the mode of training might affect the sleep dependency of motor adaptation tasks. Here we investigated whether sleep differentially impacts memory consolidation dependent on the variability during training. Healthy men were trained with their dominant, right hand on a force field adaptation task and re-tested after an 11-h consolidation period either involving overnight sleep (Sleep) or daytime wakefulness (Wake). Retesting also included a transfer to the non-dominant hand. Half of the subjects in each group adapted to different force field magnitudes with low inter-trial variability (Sleep-Blocked; Wake-Blocked), the other half with high variability (Sleep-Random; Wake-Random). EEG was recorded during task execution and overnight polysomnography. Motor adaptation was comparable between Wake and Sleep groups, although performance changes over sleep correlated with sleep spindles nesting in slow wave upstates. Higher training variability improved retest, including transfer learning, and these improvements correlated with higher alpha power in contralateral parietal areas. Enhanced consolidation after training might foster the ability to correct ongoing movements by responsive feedback rather than their pre-execution prediction.

scholarly journals Increase in weighting of vision vs. proprioception associated with force field adaptation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon M. Sexton ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Hannah J. Block
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Position Sense ◽  
Multisensory Perception ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
Null Field ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Force Field Adaptation ◽  
Perceptual Changes ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Straight Ahead

AbstractHand position can be encoded by vision, via an image on the retina, and proprioception (position sense), via sensors in the joints and muscles. The brain is thought to weight and combine available sensory estimates to form an integrated multisensory estimate of hand position with which to guide movement. Force field adaptation, a form of cerebellum-dependent motor learning in which reaches are systematically adjusted to compensate for a somatosensory perturbation, is associated with both motor and proprioceptive changes. The cerebellum has connections with parietal regions thought to be involved in multisensory integration; however, it is unknown if force adaptation is associated with changes in multisensory perception. One possibility is that force adaptation affects all relevant sensory modalities similarly, such that the brain’s weighting of vision vs. proprioception is maintained. Alternatively, the somatosensory perturbation might be interpreted as proprioceptive unreliability, resulting in vision being up-weighted relative to proprioception. We assessed visuo-proprioceptive weighting with a perceptual estimation task before and after subjects performed straight-ahead reaches grasping a robotic manipulandum. Each subject performed one session with a clockwise or counter-clockwise velocity-dependent force field, and one session in a null field to control for perceptual changes not specific to force adaptation. Subjects increased their weight of vision vs. proprioception in the force field session relative to the null field session, regardless of force field direction, in the straight-ahead dimension (F1,44 = 5.13, p = 0.029). This suggests that force field adaptation is associated with an increase in the brain’s weighting of vision vs. proprioception.

scholarly journals The effect of sequence learning on sensorimotor adaptation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Hannah J. Block
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Target Position ◽  
Random Order ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Sequence Information ◽  
Force Field Adaptation

AbstractMotor skill learning involves both sensorimotor adaptation (calibrating the response to task dynamics and kinematics), and sequence learning (executing the task elements in the correct order at the necessary speed). These processes typically occur together in natural behavior and share much in common, such as working memory demands, development, and possibly neural substrates. However, sensorimotor and sequence learning are usually studied in isolation in research settings, for example as force field adaptation or serial reaction time tasks (SRTT), respectively. It is therefore unclear whether having predictive sequence information during sensorimotor adaptation would facilitate performance, perhaps by improving sensorimotor planning, or if it would impair performance, perhaps by occupying neural resources needed for sensorimotor learning. Here we evaluated adaptation to a distance-dependent force field in two different SRTT contexts: In Experiment 1, 28 subjects reached between 4 targets in a sequenced or random order. In Experiment 2, 40 subjects reached to one target, but 3 force field directions were applied in a sequenced or random order. We did not observe any consistent influence of target position sequence on force field adaptation in Experiment 1. However, sequencing of force field directions facilitated sensorimotor adaptation and retention in Experiment 2. This is inconsistent with the idea that sensorimotor and sequence learning share neural resources in any mutually exclusive fashion. These findings indicate that under certain conditions, perhaps especially when the sequence is related to the sensorimotor perturbation itself as in Experiment 2, sequence learning may interact with sensorimotor learning in a facilitatory manner.

scholarly journals Pushing attention to one side: Force field adaptation alters neural correlates of orienting and disengagement of spatial attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-136
Author(s):  
Eva‐Maria Reuter ◽  
Jason B. Mattingley ◽  
Ross Cunnington ◽  
Stephan Riek ◽  
Timothy J. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Force Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Side Force ◽  
Force Field Adaptation

scholarly journals The perils of learning to move while speaking: One-sided interference between speech and visuomotor adaptation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Robert Lametti ◽  
Marcus Quek ◽  
Calum Prescott ◽  
John-Stuart Brittain ◽  
Kate E Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Hand Movements ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Automatic Learning ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Adaptive Processes ◽  
Speech Feedback

Our understanding of the adaptive processes that shape sensorimotor behaviour is largely derived from studying isolated movements. Studies of visuomotor adaptation, in which participants adapt cursor movements to rotations of the cursor’s screen position, have led to prominent theories of motor control. In response to changes in visual feedback of movements, explicit (cognitive) and implicit (automatic) learning processes adapt movements to counter errors. However, movements rarely occur in isolation. The extent to which explicit and implicit processes drive sensorimotor adaptation when multiple movements occur simultaneously, as in the real world, remains unclear. Here, we address this problem in the context of speech and hand movements. Participants spoke in-time with rapid, hand-driven cursor movements. Using real-time auditory alterations of speech feedback, and visual rotations of the cursor’s screen position, we induced sensorimotor adaptation in one or both movements simultaneously. Across three experiments (n = 184), we demonstrate that visuomotor adaptation is markedly impaired by simultaneous speech adaptation, and the impairment is specific to the explicit learning process. In contrast, visuomotor adaptation had no impact on speech adaptation. The results demonstrate that the explicit learning process in visuomotor adaptation is sensitive to movements in other motor domains. They suggest that speech adaptation may lack an explicit learning process.

scholarly journals Pre-movement changes in sensorimotor beta oscillations predict motor adaptation drive

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry T Darch ◽  
Nadia L Cerminara ◽  
Iain D Gilchrist ◽  
Richard Apps
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Beta Oscillations ◽  
Scalp Eeg ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
Beta Frequency ◽  
Late Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Task

AbstractBeta frequency oscillations in scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings over the primary motor cortex have been associated with the preparation and execution of voluntary movements. Here, we test whether changes in beta frequency are related to the preparation of adapted movements in human, and whether such effects generalise to other species (cat). Eleven healthy adult humans performed a joystick visuomotor adaptation task. Beta (15-25Hz) scalp EEG signals recorded over the motor cortex during a pre-movement preparatory phase were, on average, significantly reduced in amplitude during early adaptation trials compared to baseline or late adaptation trials (p=0.01). The changes in beta were not related to measurements of reaction time or duration of the reach. We also recorded LFP activity within the primary motor cortex of three cats during a prism visuomotor adaptation task. Analysis of these signals revealed similar reductions in motor cortical LFP beta frequencies during early adaptation. This effect was also present when controlling for any influence of the reaction time and reaching duration. Overall, the results are consistent with a reduction in pre-movement beta oscillations predicting an increase in adaptive drive in upcoming task performance when motor errors are largest in magnitude and the rate of adaptation is greatest.

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