How should aiming strategies be modeled and integrated into standard models of
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
ReviewTaking Aim at the Cognitive Side of Learning in Sensorimotor Adaptation Tasks
Section snippets
The Versatility of Human Motor Control
Flexible use of the upper limbs is fundamental to our species. The ability to manipulate objects with our hands, coupled with an expanding capacity to plan future states, was crucial for the survival of our ancestors [1]. Dexterous arm movements confer a tremendous advantage for efficiently harvesting foods in varied environments, as well as for manufacturing and manipulating tools. Indeed, Darwin argued that human ancestors’ use of thrown projectiles may have been an adaptation brought about
Using Multiple Learning Processes in Response to Sensorimotor Perturbations
The physics of the body and environment are in a continuous state of flux: not only do long-term changes arise from growth, development, and injury, but, in the short-term, muscles fatigue and sensory conditions fluctuate. The motor system must rapidly adjust to these variable conditions, and the ease with which we maintain calibration belies its computational complexity [29].
To study this calibration process, researchers have employed a variety of learning tasks–including prism adaptation 14,
Implications for Computational Models of Sensorimotor Learning
The field of sensorimotor learning has benefited from the development of rigorous computational models that not only account for observed behavioral results in healthy and neurologically impaired populations but also generate many testable predictions 18, 20, 46, 47. As noted in the introductory section, prevailing models of the canonical learning curve use algorithms that capture a gradient-descent reduction of error. The most prominent of such models is the two-parameter ‘state-space’ model
Neural Systems for Explicit Aiming and Implicit Recalibration
The notion that learning reflects the conjoint operation of multiple learning systems is prevalent in many cognitive domains such as category learning, recognition memory, and reinforcement learning 25, 26, 59. The work of Milner and colleagues with amnesic patient H.M. was, of course, highly influential in the development of memory taxonomies, and in particular the striking distinction between explicit, or declarative memory, and implicit, procedural memory 60, 61. Although the initial
Beyond Adaptation: Towards a Broader View of Motor Learning
Tools from statistical decision theory and Bayesian statistics may prove useful in developing descriptive models, as well as offering new ways to characterize mechanisms of motor learning 81, 82. Aiming locations could be thought of as (indirect) spatial goals, cached motor commands as action options, and the planning and execution of a specific command as an enacted decision. The honing of a true motor skill, as opposed to adaptation to an external perturbation, has been theorized to entail a
Concluding Remarks
Ultimately, it is crucial to incorporate the influence of cognitive planning into any realistic and comprehensive model of human sensorimotor learning. High-level motor planning is not only relevant to spearfishing, darts, or shooting: the ability to execute aimed movements–to rapidly, accurately, and flexibly perform planned, multi-joint movements to interact with the environment–is a hallmark of human behavior.
Acknowledgments
S.D.M was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. R.B.I. was supported by National Institutes of Health grants NS074917 and NS092079. J.A.T. was supported by NS084948.
References (89)
A comparative study of aimed throwing by monkeys and humans
Neuropsychologia
(2000)A process dissociation framework: separating automatic from intentional uses of memory
J. Mem. Lang.
(1991)Applications of prism adaptation: a tutorial in theory and method
Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
(2005)Dual-process decomposition in human sensorimotor adaptation
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
(2015)- et al.
Functional independence of explicit and implicit motor adjustments
Conscious. Cogn.
(2009) Rethinking motor learning and savings in adaptation paradigms: model-free memory for successful actions combines with internal models
Neuron
(2011)Motor task variation induces structural learning
Curr. Biol.
(2009)Model-based influences on humans’ choices and striatal prediction errors
Neuron
(2011)Further analysis of the hippocampal amnesic syndrome: 14-year follow-up study of H.M
Neuropsychologia
(1968)Neural correlates associated with intermanual transfer of sensorimotor adaptation
Brain Res.
(2007)
Neural design of the cerebellar motor control system
Brain Res.
Cerebellar learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex
Trends Cogn. Sci.
Cerebellar and prefrontal cortex contributions to adaptation, strategies, and reinforcement learning
Prog. Brain. Res.
Motor control is decision-making
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
Decision making, movement planning and statistical decision theory
Trends Cogn. Sci.
Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci.
Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo
Nature
The Descent of Man, And Selection in Relation to Sex
Tool-using and aimed throwing in a community of free-living chimpanzees
Nature
The neural and cognitive correlates of aimed throwing in chimpanzees: a magnetic resonance image and behavioural study on a unique form of social tool use
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci.
Accuracy of voluntary movement
The Psychological Review: Monograph Supplements
The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement
J. Exp. Psych.
Motor-output variability: a theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts
Psychol. Rev.
A century later: Woodworth's (1899) two-component model of goal-directed aiming
Psychol. Bull.
Adaptive representation of dynamics during learning of a motor task
J. Neurosci.
An internal model for sensorimotor integration
Science
Adaptation to lateral displacement of vision in patients with lesions of the central nervous system
Neurology
Throwing while looking through prisms. I. Focal olivocerebellar lesions impair adaptation
Brain
Sensory prediction errors drive cerebellum-dependent adaptation of reaching
J. Neurophysiol.
Cerebellar contributions to reach adaptation and learning sensory consequences of action
J. Neurosci.
Adaptation to visuomotor rotation and force field perturbation is correlated to different brain areas in patients with cerebellar degeneration
J. Neurophysiol.
Learning of action through adaptive combination of motor primitives
Nature
Dual adaptation supports a parallel architecture of motor memory
J. Neurosci.
Interacting adaptive processes with different timescales underlie short-term motor learning
PLoS Biol.
A memory of errors in sensorimotor learning
Science
Modeling sensorimotor learning with linear dynamical systems
Neural Comput.
Mechanisms of skill acquisition and the law of practice
Savings upon re-aiming in visuomotor adaptation
J. Neurosci.
A neuropsychological theory of multiple systems in category learning
Psychol. Rev.
A neuropsychological theory of motor skill learning
Psychol. Rev.
Throwing while looking through prisms. II. Specificity and storage of multiple gaze-throw calibrations
Brain
Error correction, sensory prediction, and adaptation in motor control
Annu. Rev. Neurosci.
Helmholtz's treatise on physiological optics
Aiming error under transformed spatial mappings suggests a structure for visual-motor maps
J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
Cited by (134)
Cognition and movement in neurodegenerative disorders: A dynamic duo
2024, Neural Regeneration ResearchLarge-scale citizen science reveals predictors of sensorimotor adaptation
2024, Nature Human BehaviourExploring the relationship between computational frameworks and neuroscience studies for sensorimotor learning and control
2024, Journal of Autonomous Intelligence