FMRI STUDIES OF MOTOR CONTROL AND MOTOR LEARNING

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心，不一定是研究者所在机构。协调身体不同部位的运动是人类运动表现的一个重要方面。本研究的重点是协调性运动技能获得和巩固的神经机制。以往的研究主要集中在单手动作上。虽然这项研究揭示了学习的重要机制，但对孤立的单手运动的关注使大脑如何完成不同肢体之间的协调的问题在很大程度上未被探索。协调无处不在：例如，我们的许多手动操作都是用双手完成的。通常，一只手通过握住另一只手操纵的物体来起到支持作用。然而，持有并不是一种被动的行为。相反，为了保持物体的稳定性，支撑的手必须预测另一只手产生的力并抵消它们。我们将通过生成一种情况来研究这种类型的协调行为的学习，在这种情况下，一只手的动作（按下按钮）会导致另一只手的可预测扰动。通过训练，大脑将学会预测一只手的动作对另一只手的稳定性的影响，即，协同为了研究这种协调的神经基础，我们借鉴了在运动控制中观察到的两个重要原则：第一，学习是由错误信号驱动的，即关于上一个运动中出错的信号。第二，在学习的初始阶段之后，运动技能的巩固伴随着神经变化，尽管在明显的行为中只有微妙的变化。了解这些机制如何在协调学习中发挥作用，是改善中风和神经退行性疾病后协调缺陷诊断和治疗的第一步。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Coordination of movements across different parts of the body is an essential aspect of human motor performance. The proposed research will focus on the neural mechanisms involved in the acquisition and consolidation of coordinative motor skills. Previous work on motor learning has mainly focused on unimanual actions. While this research has revealed important mechanisms of learning, the focus on isolated unimanual movements has left the question of how the brain accomplishes coordination between different limbs largely unexplored. Coordination is ubiquitous: For example, many of our manual actions are performed with both hands. Often one hand serves a supportive role by holding an object that is manipulated by the other hand. However, holding is not a passive act. Rather, in order to maintain stability of the object, the supporting hand must anticipate the forces produced by the other hand and counteract them. We will study the learning of this type of coordinative behavior by generating a situation in which an action of one hand (a button press) leads to a predictable perturbation of the other hand. With training, the brain will learn to predict the effect of action of one hand on the stability of the other hand, i.e., coordination. To study the neural basis of this coordination, we draw upon two important principles that have been observed in motor control: First, learning is driven by an error signal, i.e. signals about what went wrong in the last movement. Second, after initial stages of learning, consolidation of motor skills is accompanied by a neural change, despite only subtle changes in the overt behavior. Understanding of how these mechanisms are brought to bear in coordination learning constitutes the first step in improving the diagnostic and treatment of coordination deficits following stroke and neuro-degenerative diseases.