Sensory and motor plasticity in learning

我们大脑中的运动控制系统有一种非凡的能力——比任何人工控制系统都强——根据对其表现的感官反馈来塑造和修复自己，换句话说，就是学习。但我们的适应机制常常不足，迫使许多神经系统患者带着严重的残疾生活。对运动学习的更清晰的理解可以改善康复，并为发育障碍或受损个体提供更好的运动技能培训。本提案中的项目将通过检查我们的自适应机制如何整合和影响来自多个传感器的数据来阐明运动学习的原理。到目前为止，目前的运动学习模型和实验几乎完全集中在运动功能或运动可塑性的变化上，而没有考虑学习如何影响感觉过程，特别是本体感觉过程（即感觉位置感），并反过来受其影响。更清楚地了解感觉功能是如何改变的，进而改变运动学习和表现，对于确定老年人和神经系统患者学习缺陷的来源是必要的。我们的目标是揭示感觉和运动可塑性在运动学习中的作用和贡献，从而在一般运动控制中

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.**