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，但研究通常集中在一组人的平均学习模式上。这引出了运动神经科学中一个基本但尚未解决的问题：为什么有些人学习运动技能要比其他人做得更好？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理来解释--最优反馈控制的基本原理是，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。在这个提案中，我概述了我的研究计划的三个部分，这些部分考察了个体在用手臂执行不同的运动任务时如何对机械干扰做出反应，以及学习在伸展时补偿手臂上的新负荷。综上所述，这项提案中的项目将重点从群体行为转移到了解个人如何控制和适应他们的手臂动作。这将是我朝着理解人类运动控制和学习的行为、神经生理学和计算基础的长期目标迈出的重要一步。这项研究计划的结果将会引起研究感觉和运动系统的神经科学家的兴趣，并可能为改进我们在健康和疾病中教授和康复运动技能的方式提供一个基础。

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.