Mechanisms of sensory processing in human motor control and learning

人们学习运动技能的能力各不相同，但研究通常集中在不同人群的平均学习模式上。这就引出了运动神经科学中一个尚未解决的基本问题：为什么有些人比其他人更好地学习运动技能？这项拨款测试了人类运动控制和学习的变化是否可以用最优反馈控制的基本原则来解释，即不同控制策略的选择决定了神经系统如何处理运动中出现的干扰。在本提案中，我概述了我的研究计划的三个部分，即研究个体如何在用手臂执行不同的运动任务时对机械干扰做出反应，并学习补偿在伸手过程中施加在手臂上的新负荷。综上所述，本提案中的项目将重点从群体行为转移到理解个体如何控制和适应他们的手臂运动。这将是我理解人类运动控制和学习的行为、神经生理和计算基础的长期目标的重要一步。这个研究项目的结果将引起研究感觉和运动系统的神经科学家的兴趣，也可能为改善我们在健康和疾病中如何教授和恢复运动技能提供基础。

People vary in their ability to learn motor skills, but studies typically focus on learning patterns averaged across groups of people. This leads to a fundamental yet unresolved question in motor neuroscience: why do some people learn to perform motor skills better than others? This grant tests whether the variation of human motor control and learning can be explained by a fundamental principle of optimal feedback control – that the selection of different control strategies determines how the nervous system deals with disturbances that arise during movement. In this proposal, I outline three parts of my research program that examine how individual people respond to mechanical disturbances while performing different motor tasks with their arm, and learning to compensate for novel loads applied to their arm during reaching. Taken together, the projects in this proposal shift the focus from group behaviour to understanding how individual people control and adapt their arm movements. This will be an important step toward my long-term goal of understanding the behavioural, neurophysiological and computational bases of human motor control and learning. The results of this research program will be of interest to neuroscientists who study the sensory and motor systems, and may also provide a basis for improving how we teach and rehabilitate motor skills in health and disease.