Use of sensory feedback for voluntary control

当曲棍球运动员在冰上加速并进球时，很容易给人留下深刻的印象。即使被防守队员推挤，优秀的运动员也会迅速调整甚至改变射门位置，以达到自己的优势。工程控制理论提供了关于我们的运动系统如何将感官信息转换为快速运动校正以执行这些令人印象深刻的技能壮举的重要见解。受控制理论的启发，该研究项目的重点是检查视觉和本体感觉（肌肉感觉信号）如何支持我们进行这些快速运动校正的能力。我们之前的工作演示了如何调整使用本体感受反馈的在线控制，以考虑目标形状或环境中是否存在障碍物等因素。我们的第一个项目探讨了视觉反馈是否以及如何快速考虑这些与任务相关的因素。 我们对人类受试者的初步数据表明它可以，但需要至少 130 毫秒，比本体感觉反馈长 60 毫秒。我们的第二个项目探讨了与本体感受反馈相比，视觉处理延迟的影响。由于感觉信号可能存在​​噪声，并且在向大脑传输信息时也会存在延迟，因此一个关键问题是了解运动系统如何结合感觉信号进行在线控制。 您应该使用更准确的（视觉）还是最快的（本体感觉）？ 在这里，我们通过在到达过程中操纵视觉和本体感觉反馈来检查这个多感觉整合问题。我们的初步数据强调，本体感觉反馈最初在运动过程中主导视觉反馈，与考虑可变性和延迟的数学模型相匹配。最后，我们的第三个项目将探讨动态目标（在环境中移动的目标）如何影响我们的快速运动校正。目前的研究计划将提供有关我们的自愿运动系统的重要基本特性，并支持我们在世界上移动和互动的能力。这些研究项目将为多名学员提供重要的培训机会，包括使用先进技术来研究运动功能。该提案还将影响我们未来的研究，探索中风等神经损伤如何影响一个人使用本体感觉和视觉信息来指导运动动作的能力。

It is easy to be impressed when a hockey player speeds down the ice and scores a goal. Even if they arejostled by the defensemen, great athletes quickly adjust or even change where they shoot the puck to his or her advantage. Engineering control theory provides important insight on how our motor system can convert sensory information into rapid motor corrections to perform these impressive feats of skill. Inspired by control theory, the focus of this research program is to examine how visual and proprioceptive (muscle sensory signals) support our ability to make these rapid motor corrections. Our previous work demonstrated how online control using proprioceptive feedback can be adjusted to consider factors such as target shape or the presence of obstacles in the environment. Our first project explores whether and how quickly visual feedback also considers these task-related factors. Our preliminary data on human subjects highlights it can but requires at least 130ms, 60ms longer than for proprioceptive feedback. Our second project explores the impact of this delay in processing visual as compared to proprioceptive feedback. As sensory signals can have noise and also have delays in transmitting information to the brain, a key problem is to understand how the motor system combines sensory signals for online control. Should you use the more accurate (vision) or the fastest (proprioceptive)? Here we examine this multi-sensory integration problem by manipulating visual and proprioceptive feedback during reaching. Our preliminary data highlight that proprioceptive feedback initially dominates over visual feedback during movement, matching mathematical models that consider variability and delays. Finally, our third project will explore how dynamic goals (targets moving in the environment) influence our rapid motor corrections. The present research program will provide important fundamental properties about our voluntary motor system and it supports our ability to move and interact in the world. The research projects will provide important training opportunities for several trainees, including the use of advanced technologies to study motor function. The proposal will also impact our future studies exploring how neurological injuries, such as stroke, impact one's ability to use proprioceptive and visual information to guide motor actions.