Sensory and motor plasticity in learning

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Motor-control systems in our brains have a remarkable ability - greater than that of any artificial control system - to shape and repair themselves based on sensory feedback about their performance, or in other words to learn. But our adaptive mechanisms often fall short, forcing many neurological patients to live their lives with serious disabilities. A clearer understanding of motor learning could lead to improved rehabilitation, and to better motor-skills training for developmentally challenged or impaired individuals. The projects in this proposal will clarify the principles of motor learning by examining how our adaptive mechanisms integrate and affect data from multiple sensors. So far current models and experiments on motor learning have focused almost exclusively on the resulting changes to motor function or motor plasticity without regard to how learning also affects, and in turn is affected by, sensory processes, specifically those of proprioception (i.e., felt sense of position). A clearer understanding of how sensory functions are modified, and in turn modify motor learning and performance, is necessary to determine the sources of learning deficits in older individuals and neurological patients. Our objective is to reveal the function and contribution of both sensory and motor plasticity in motor learning, and hence in general motor control.