Sensory mechanisms in arm motor control

你每次举起一杯咖啡的方式都不同，但几乎从来不会洒出来。这种对比引出了感觉运动神经科学中的一个基本问题：为什么如此不一致的动作如此一致地成功？最近一个有影响力的电机控制理论叫做“最优反馈控制”，它为解决这一基本问题提供了一个新的视角。也就是说，当面对多个噪声源时，最好的策略是只有当它影响任务的全局目标时才纠正可变性。在这项拨款中，我建议对这一命题进行三种不同的测试，称为最小干预原则，以及有助于探索其潜在神经机制的相关研究。作为一名早期的职业研究人员，这项工作是我长期研究计划中重要的第一步，该计划旨在揭示自然主义的触觉、抓取和物体操纵的神经基础。这一研究计划的结果将引起感觉运动神经学家的广泛兴趣，并可能有助于正在进行的脑机接口、类人机器人以及健康和疾病方面的运动性能方面的工作。**

You lift a cup of coffee differently every time but almost never spill. This contrast leads to a fundamental question in sensorimotor neuroscience: why are such inconsistent movements so consistently successful? A recent and influential theory of motor control called "optimal feedback control" provides a novel perspective from which to address this fundamental question. That is, when faced with multiple sources of noise the best strategy is to correct variability only when it impacts the global goal of the task. In this grant, I propose three different tests of this proposition, termed the minimum intervention principle, and related studies that help probe its underlying neural mechanisms. As an early career researcher, this work represents an important first step in my long-term research program, which aims to reveal the neural basis of naturalistic reaching, grasping and object manipulation. The results of this research program will be of broad interest to sensorimotor neuroscientists and may benefit ongoing work into brain-machine interfaces, humanoid robots, and motor performance in both health and disease.  **