Dissociation of motor deficits in learning tasks

描述(由申请人提供)： 学习和产生连续动作的能力是适应行为的基础。这种学习通常是内隐的，在没有意识到最佳动作顺序的情况下发生。基底节和小脑被认为是获得内隐学习的顺序动作的关键。然而，神经成像和神经心理学研究的结果对这些皮质下结构的贡献提供了不一致的图景。最近的两项发现可能会为这种差异提供洞察。首先，运动学习和表现可能取决于运动暗示，这一变量在序列学习研究中受到的关注很少。其次，运动障碍可能会导致继发性认知障碍，因为人们更多地专注于控制受损的运动。这项拟议的研究试图在内隐运动学习的皮质下控制的背景下解决这些新的想法。方法包括对神经学健康和受损的人进行行为测试和功能成像。这些发现与制定运动障碍患者的康复战略有关，因为该提案试图确定小脑或基底节障碍患者能够学习新技能的条件以及他们受到损害的条件。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to learn and produce sequential movements is fundamental to adaptive behavior. Such learning is often implicit, occurring without awareness of the optimal sequence of movements. The basal ganglia and cerebellum have been hypothesized to be critical for the acquisition of implicitly learned sequential movements. However, results obtained in neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies provide an inconsistent picture of the contributions of these subcortical structures. Two recent findings may provide insight into such discrepancies. First, motor learning and performance may depend on the movement cues, a variable that has received little attention in sequence learning studies. Second, motor impairments may lead to secondary cognitive deficits due to increased attention devoted to controlling the impaired movement. The proposed studies seek to address these novel ideas in the context of subcortical control of implicit motor learning. Methods include behavioral testing and functional imaging with neurologically healthy and impaired individuals. The findings are relevant to the development of rehabilitation strategies for persons with motor disorders as the proposal seeks to identify conditions under which patients with either cerebellar or basal ganglia disorders are able to learn new skills as well as conditions in which they are impaired.