Friday, July 14, 2017

Sensorimotor Learning: Neurocognitive Mechanisms and Individual Differences

You'll have to ask your doctor how this new knowledge will affect your 100% recovery protocols.
https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-017-0279-1
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201714:74
DOI: 10.1186/s12984-017-0279-1
Received: 27 February 2017
Accepted: 21 June 2017
Published: 13 July 2017

Abstract

Here we provide an overview of findings and viewpoints on the mechanisms of sensorimotor learning presented at the 2016 Biomechanics and Neural Control of Movement (BANCOM) conference in Deer Creek, OH. This field has shown substantial growth in the past couple of decades. For example it is now well accepted that neural systems outside of primary motor pathways play a role in learning. Frontoparietal and anterior cingulate networks contribute to sensorimotor adaptation, reflecting strategic aspects of exploration and learning. Longer term training results in functional and morphological changes in primary motor and somatosensory cortices. Interestingly, re-engagement of strategic processes once a skill has become well learned may disrupt performance.
Efforts to predict individual differences in learning rate have enhanced our understanding of the neural, behavioral, and genetic factors underlying skilled human performance. Access to genomic analyses has dramatically increased over the past several years. This has enhanced our understanding of cellular processes underlying the expression of human behavior, including involvement of various neurotransmitters, receptors, and enzymes. Surprisingly our field has been slow to adopt such approaches in studying neural control, although this work does require much larger sample sizes than are typically used to investigate skill learning. We advocate that individual differences approaches can lead to new insights into human sensorimotor performance. Moreover, a greater understanding of the factors underlying the wide range of performance capabilities seen across individuals can promote personalized medicine and refinement of rehabilitation strategies, which stand to be more effective than “one size fits all” treatments.

Keywords

Motor learning Adaptation BANCOM SNP Genetic predictors Genotype

Background

This paper provides a high level overview of the 2016 Biomechanics and Neural Control of Movement conference session on sensorimotor adaptation and learning. In the past few decades there have been substantial changes in perspectives of motor learning; predictive and optimal control theories have been put forth to explain how performance can be updated despite physiological limitations such as feedback delays and impedance. This forward modeling approach has been described by Miall and Wolpert [1]; the current state of the body is used as a starting point, and motor efference copy is used to predict action outcomes. One can therefore implement some required corrections without waiting for action feedback. Furthermore, error correcting mechanisms seem to leverage the same forward modeling processes that are used to plan and initiate voluntary actions, with hallmarks of corrections being visible at latencies as short as 60 ms [2, 3]. It has also been demonstrated that both forward models and error correction processes are modified with sensorimotor adaptation (cf. [4, 5, 6, 7]).
In the past ten years, substantial progress has been made in identifying neurocognitive correlates of adaptation to sensorimotor perturbations and individual differences contributing to varying degrees of success with adaptation and learning. This paper provides a perspective on these topics. Specifically, section II outlines how the study of individual differences in learning and adaptation rates can yield understanding of the neural and cognitive processes underlying these behaviors. Section III highlights genetic approaches as another pathway to elucidating individual differences in learning. We then discuss clinical implications of the reviewed work (section IV) and future directions that may prove fruitful for further study (section V).

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