Motor Learning II

What are two hallmark measurements of improved motor skill due to learning?
Click the card to flip 👆
1 / 26
Terms in this set (26)
What are two hallmark measurements of improved motor skill due to learning?
Shift in speed-acuracy function

Movement variability is strongly reduced
How can you measure the speed-accuracy trade off?
By forcing a participant to do a task at a certain speed and measuring the number if errors at different speeds
Predict how the speed-accuracy trade off is affected by training?
It will reduce errors compared to untrained participants but this difference will decrease with higher speeds. So the speed-accuracy curve shifts.
Which two information inputs influence the estimated state in closed-loop control?
The predicted sensory consequences from the efferent copy + the afferent information of the sensory system
What are four places where we can optimise processes during skill acquisition to become very skilful in particular movements
Feedback control policy - better motor command
The predictor - better internal model
Which and how sensory info is sampled - better perception
Priors - better statistics of the task
How can muscles activate to resist pertubation?
They can co-activate which makes them stiffer...
An example for developing a better control policy is by giving the task of putting the arm at a certain joint angle and them perturbing the movement so the participant has to adapt the movement in order to reach the target angle. Outline how the four stages after the perturbation that lead to a more efficient control policy in the end. (The. Uscles used are biceps and triceps, and the angle is upwards therefore requiring the bicep to activate to reach the target angle and the tricep to stop at the right angle)
1) big activity peak in biceps caused by perturbation, the peak that would have been enough before the perturbation + a higher feedback activation peak
2) EMG compensates for anticipated perturbation, but not completely (its still off and needs some adjustments meaning a adjusted peak)
3) high, anticipatory EMG activity in biceps and triceps where there is a bit of an overshoot but a smooth peak (perturbation was anticipated and EMG activity adapted to compensate perturbation proactively instead of reactively)
4) high co-contraction is reduced to make the movement more energy efficient and the perfect peak is achieved once the efficient EMG pattern is known- achieving the more efficient control policy
Changes in muscle activity can be achieved in any different levels of the nervous system, give two examples of this.
Adopting reflex gains (fast control mechanism but not very flexible)
Shaping the motor command sent from the cortex (slow control mechanism but extremely variable)
Which is found to percede the other in the modification of internal models? The prediction or the control?
Prediction
Subjects were required to grasp an object with a precision grip and move it along a straight line. During the movement, a novel viscous load, which perturbed the load experienced by the fingers and therefore the hand path, was applied to the object.

What relationship was found between grip force and movement improvements and what did they infer from this?
The lower the grip forces the better they could predict the movement and so it was needed to optimise grip force before being able to improve the movement. Or in other words learning to control the movement path takes much longer than learning to (correctly) predict the required force.
What advantage does our ability to quickly learn prediction of tools enable us to do that helps optimise movements?To stabilise our limbs and subsequently the controller (movement pattern) can be trainedDescribe an example where skill acquisition leads to better extraction of sensory information.When a cricket batter is watching a badd experts have a different eye movement pattern than amateurs where the time until the saccade to the expected bounce point is shorter (more info is extracted from first phase of ball trajectory) which means they can extract more time to observe the bounceObservational data and a prior (previous experience) combine to create what? In which of the two is there a higher uncertainty? Why do we combine the info?A resulting belief, an average prediction between the data and the prior A prior tends to have more uncertainty Because the uncertainty is reduced with combined information through Bayesian statistics and/or maximum likelihood estimationHow could you shift a resulting belief toward a prior? How does the brain do this and why?By increasing the uncertainty of the data (e.g. playing tennis in fog) The brain estimates the uncertainty of the prior information and combines it with the sensory information whilst also calculating its uncertainty to chose the best solutionDefine skill learning and explain how it is measuredA task is performed better after practice Measured through less mistakes when movements are executed at the same or faster speeds, lower variabilityWhen we move with a tool, what do we have to learn before we can control it?Its propertiesWhy is high motivation important in motor learning?Increases effort in practice which leads to more improvements + ot might facilitate physiological mechanisms important for neuroplasticityExplain a pro and con for augmented feedbackTraining with it leads to faster improvements at the beginning but it can lead to feedback dependency where you can;t perform the task when the feedback is removedWhen training two skills what is better for long-term memory and retention: spaced training or massed training?Spaced learningDefine consolidationProcess during which memories are transformed from a labile to a stable stateDefine reconsolidation in relation to memoryNeural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for later retrieval (can differ from original memory)What is the critical time window of consolidation?Its an approximately 5 hour window after the skill acquisition that consolidates the memory and when interfered with it will sig. reduce the progress saved (partial forgetting)Which animals sleep?All animals with a CNS or non-centralised neurons show sleep-like propertiesWhat are 4 behavioural characteristics that an animal is asleep?Physical quiescence - no activity or reduced Elevated arousal threshold/reduced responsiveness Rapid reversibility of state Homeostatic regulationOutline the sleep characteristics in jellyfishThe pulsing that they do habitually is reduced during the night They showed a reduced responsiveness to reacting to being lifted up by swimming back to the bottom, but with repeats they shows similar responsiveness to the wakeful state suggesting rapid reversibility When their sleep was perturbed they showed less activity during the day that recovered the next day after non-interrupted sleepPeter worked the whole day and danced the whole night. The next day he was not that focused at work and was dozing off multiple times What sleep characteristic is this an example of?Homeostatic regulation