scholarly journals Rapid and Accumulated Modulation of Action-Effects on Action

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 2333-2341
Author(s):  
Liyu Cao ◽  
Wilfried Kunde ◽  
Barbara Haendel

Auditory feedback to a keypress is used in many devices to facilitate the motor output. The timing of auditory feedback is known to have an impact on the motor output, yet it is not known if a keypress action can be modulated on-line by an auditory feedback or how quick an auditory feedback can influence an ongoing keypress. Furthermore, it is not clear if the prediction of auditory feedback already changes the early phase of a keypress action independent of sensory feedback, which would suggest that such prediction changes the motor plan. In the current study, participants pressed a touch-sensitive device with auditory feedback in a self-paced manner. The auditory feedback was given either after a short (60 msec) or long (160 msec) delay, and the delay was either predictable or not. Our results showed that the keypress peak force was modulated by the amount of auditory feedback delay even when the delay was unpredictable, thus demonstrating an on-line modulation effect. The latency of the on-line modulation was suggested to be as low as 70 msec, indicating a very fast sensory to motor mapping circuit in the brain. When the auditory feedback delay was predictable, a change in the very early phase of keypress motor output was found, suggesting that the prediction of sensory feedback is crucial to motor control. Therefore, even a simple keypress action contains rich motor dynamics, which depend on expected as well as on-line perceived sensory feedback.

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Grush

The emulation theory of representation is developed and explored as a framework that can revealingly synthesize a wide variety of representational functions of the brain. The framework is based on constructs from control theory (forward models) and signal processing (Kalman filters). The idea is that in addition to simply engaging with the body and environment, the brain constructs neural circuits that act as models of the body and environment. During overt sensorimotor engagement, these models are driven by efference copies in parallel with the body and environment, in order to provide expectations of the sensory feedback, and to enhance and process sensory information. These models can also be run off-line in order to produce imagery, estimate outcomes of different actions, and evaluate and develop motor plans. The framework is initially developed within the context of motor control, where it has been shown that inner models running in parallel with the body can reduce the effects of feedback delay problems. The same mechanisms can account for motor imagery as the off-line driving of the emulator via efference copies. The framework is extended to account for visual imagery as the off-line driving of an emulator of the motor-visual loop. I also show how such systems can provide for amodal spatial imagery. Perception, including visual perception, results from such models being used to form expectations of, and to interpret, sensory input. I close by briefly outlining other cognitive functions that might also be synthesized within this framework, including reasoning, theory of mind phenomena, and language.


2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 2448-2456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwayne Keough ◽  
Jeffery A. Jones

Research on the control of visually guided limb movements indicates that the brain learns and continuously updates an internal model that maps the relationship between motor commands and sensory feedback. A growing body of work suggests that an internal model that relates motor commands to sensory feedback also supports vocal control. There is evidence from arm-reaching studies that shows that when provided with a contextual cue, the motor system can acquire multiple internal models, which allows an animal to adapt to different perturbations in diverse contexts. In this study we show that trained singers can rapidly acquire multiple internal models regarding voice fundamental frequency ( F0). These models accommodate different perturbations to ongoing auditory feedback. Participants heard three musical notes and reproduced each one in succession. The musical targets could serve as a contextual cue to indicate which direction (up or down) feedback would be altered on each trial; however, participants were not explicitly instructed to use this strategy. When participants were gradually exposed to altered feedback adaptation was observed immediately following vocal onset. Aftereffects were target specific and did not influence vocal productions on subsequent trials. When target notes were no longer a contextual cue, adaptation occurred during altered feedback trials and evidence for trial-by-trial adaptation was found. These findings indicate that the brain is exceptionally sensitive to the deviations between auditory feedback and the predicted consequence of a motor command during vocalization. Moreover, these results indicate that, with contextual cues, the vocal control system may maintain multiple internal models that are capable of independent modification during different tasks or environments.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-132
Author(s):  
Jenna Brager ◽  
Tamar Rodney ◽  
Deborah Finnell

Background: An estimated 15.1 million adults ages 18 years and older are classified with an alcohol use disorder, which includes 9.8 million men and 5.3 million women. A brief intervention is indicated for those identified to be at risk because of alcohol use. Objective: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of informational videos about alcohol use. Design: This feasibility study provided participants with the opportunity to choose one of two videos, Alcohol and the Brain or Rethinking Drinking. An online survey was administered to all study participants to identify alcohol-related risk, readiness to decrease use, and knowledge pertaining to alcohol use. Results: The two videos provided in this study were feasibly delivered in an on-line format to 129 adults, including 115 males and 5 females identified to be at risk. Knowledge scores increased only slightly. There were mixed results for the readiness scores. Conclusions: Future research should examine the efficacy of these two alcohol brief interventions on alcohol-related outcomes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Shiller ◽  
Takashi Mitsuya ◽  
Ludo Max

ABSTRACTPerceiving the sensory consequences of our actions with a delay alters the interpretation of these afferent signals and impacts motor learning. For reaching movements, delayed visual feedback of hand position reduces the rate and extent of visuomotor adaptation, but substantial adaptation still occurs. Moreover, the detrimental effect of visual feedback delay on reach motor learning—selectively affecting its implicit component—can be mitigated by prior habituation to the delay. Auditory-motor learning for speech has been reported to be more sensitive to feedback delay, and it remains unknown whether habituation to auditory delay reduces its negative impact on learning. We investigated whether 30 minutes of exposure to auditory delay during speaking (a) affects the subjective perception of delay, and (b) mitigates its disruptive effect on speech auditory-motor learning. During a speech adaptation task with real-time perturbation of vowel spectral properties, participants heard this frequency-shifted feedback with no delay, 75 ms delay, or 115 ms delay. In the delay groups, 50% of participants had been exposed to the delay throughout a preceding 30-minute block of speaking whereas the remaining participants completed this block without delay. Although habituation minimized awareness of the delay, no improvement in adaptation to the spectral perturbation was observed. Thus, short-term habituation to auditory feedback delays is not effective in reducing the negative impact of delay on speech auditory-motor adaptation. Combined with previous findings, the strong negative effect of delay and the absence of an influence of delay awareness suggest the involvement of predominantly implicit learning mechanisms in speech.HIGHLIGHTSSpeech auditory-motor adaptation to a spectral perturbation was reduced by ~50% when feedback was delayed by 75 or 115 ms.Thirty minutes of prior delay exposure without perturbation effectively reduced participants’ awareness of the delay.However, habituation was ineffective in remediating the detrimental effect of delay on speech auditory-motor adaptation.The dissociation of delay awareness and adaptation suggests that speech auditory-motor learning is mostly implicit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McGregor ◽  
Abigail Grassler ◽  
Paul I. Jaffe ◽  
Amanda Louise Jacob ◽  
Michael Brainard ◽  
...  

Songbirds and humans share the ability to adaptively modify their vocalizations based on sensory feedback. Prior studies have focused primarily on the role that auditory feedback plays in shaping vocal output throughout life. In contrast, it is unclear whether and how non-auditory information drives vocal plasticity. Here, we first used a reinforcement learning paradigm to establish that non-auditory feedback can drive vocal learning in adult songbirds. We then assessed the role of a songbird basal ganglia-thalamocortical pathway critical to auditory vocal learning in this novel form of vocal plasticity. We found that both this circuit and its dopaminergic inputs are necessary for non-auditory vocal learning, demonstrating that this pathway is not specialized exclusively for auditory-driven vocal learning. The ability of this circuit to use both auditory and non-auditory information to guide vocal learning may reflect a general principle for the neural systems that support vocal plasticity across species.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Perna ◽  
Jessica Temple

Background. Ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes have different pathophysiologies and possibly different long-term cerebral and functional implications. Hemorrhagic strokes expose the brain to irritating effects of blood and ischemic strokes reflect localized or diffuse cerebral vascular pathology.Methods. Participants were individuals who suffered either an ischemic (n=172) or hemorrhagic stroke (n=112) within the past six months and were involved in a postacute neurorehabilitation program. Participants completed three months of postacute neurorehabilitation and the Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 (MPAI-4) at admission and discharge. Admission MPAI-4 scores and level of functioning were comparable.Results. Group ANOVA comparisons show no significant group differences at admission or discharge or difference in change scores. Both groups showed considerably reduced levels of productivity/employment after discharge as compared to preinjury levels.Conclusions. Though the pathophysiology of these types of strokes is different, both ultimately result in ischemic injuries, possibly accounting for lack of findings of differences between groups. In the present study, participants in both groups experienced similar functional levels across all three MPAI-4 domains both at admission and discharge. Limitations of this study include a highly educated sample and few outcome measures.


1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Saxman ◽  
Theodore D. Hanley

Twenty female subjects were required to select, by the method of fractionation, the delay interval judged by them to be one-half the duration of the standard delay interval with which it was paired. The signals judged were the delay intervals between the subjects' own production of the syllable /da/ and its return via delayed auditory feedback. Ten ascending and ten descending one-half judgments were obtained for each subject at each of tie standard delay intervals of 100, 200, 400, and 800 msec. The curves for the ascending, descending, and combined ascending-descending judgments, when plotted against delay intervals in physical time, were all nearly linear with a slight positively accelerated slope. A tentative scale of subjective delay time is described and its implications for evaluating the speech response to DAF as a function of time are noted.


2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 1213-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Goble ◽  
Joaquin A. Anguera

Motor neurophysiologists are placing greater emphasis on sensory feedback processing than ever before. In line with this shift, a recent article by Ostry and colleagues provided timely new evidence that force-field motor learning influences not only motor output, but also proprioceptive sense. In this Neuro Forum, the merits and limitations of Ostry and colleagues are explored in the context of recent work on proprioceptive function, including several recent studies from this journal.


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