The cognitive and sensory control of goal-directed movement

大脑的主要功能之一是运动。虽然我们的许多日常动作看起来很“简单”，但实际上它们非常复杂。例如，当抓一杯咖啡时，我们的大脑必须识别杯子的位置，指定移动肢体所需的肌肉命令，并产生适当的力量来确保稳定的抓握。所有这些通常都是在无意识的情况下进行的，正如我们无数次在集中注意力看电视或看报纸时抓住一个物体所证明的那样。******这项研究计划的长期目标是更好地理解来自我们感官系统（即视觉和触觉）的知识和信息如何有助于有效和高效的运动，支持我们的日常生活活动。这个研究项目将使用技术来跟踪眼睛和四肢的运动，并将这些信息与大脑活动的直接测量（即脑电图）相结合。同时测量运动和大脑活动将为理解大脑如何控制我们的运动提供一个直接的框架。在短期内，本研究项目涉及三个相互关联的研究主题：***主题a：触觉反馈在抓取中的作用。目的：确定抓握过程中视觉-触觉和触觉-触觉绝对校准的时空特性。主题B：运动中的“慢”认知控制。目的：探讨自上而下认知控制行为的行为特征和相关神经机制。***主题C：支持运动的认知规则。目的：确定运动系统在多刺激和多感觉环境中编码目标属性所使用的认知规则。******本文提出的研究将增强我们对大脑如何控制运动的理解。因此，从这个项目中获得的见解将支持我们对神经运动障碍的理解，以及促进运动恢复和规避运动缺陷的康复计划的发展。此外，该计划将加强我们对日常生活基本活动如何进行的理解，从而有助于确定促进新手和精英水平运动的职业培训和技能发展的技术。

One of the brain's primary functions is movement. Although many of our day-to-day movements appear ‘simple', they are in fact incredibly complex. For example, when grasping a cup of coffee our brain must identify where the cup is, specify the muscle commands required to move the limb, and produce an appropriate amount of force to ensure a stable grasp. All of this is generally performed without our conscious awareness, as demonstrated by the numerous times we have grasped an object while focusing attention on the television or a newspaper article. ******The long-term objective of this research program is to better understand how knowledge and information from our sensory systems (i.e., vision and touch) contributes to the effective and efficient movements supporting our activities of daily living. This research program will use technology to track the movement of the eyes and the limbs and integrate that information with a direct measure of brain activity (i.e., electroencephalography). The simultaneous measurement of movement and brain activity will provide a direct framework to understand how the brain controls our movements. In the short-term, this research program involves a series of investigations in three interrelated research themes:*** Theme A: The role of haptic feedback in grasping. Objective: To determine the spatiotemporal properties permitting an absolute visuo-haptic and tactile-haptic calibration in grasping.*** Theme B: ‘Slow' cognitive control in movement. Objective: To determine the behavioural properties and neural mechanisms associated with actions involving top-down cognitive control.*** Theme C: Cognitive rules supporting movement. Objective: To identify the cognitive rule(s) used by the motor system to encode a target property in a multi-stimulus and -sensory environment.******The research proposed herein will enhance our understanding of how the brain controls movement. Thus, insights gained from this program will support our understanding of neuromotor disorders and the development of rehabilitation programs that promote motor recovery and circumvent movement deficits. Moreover, this program will enhance our understanding of how fundamental activities of daily living are performed and therefore serve to identify techniques facilitating occupational training and skills development in novice and elite levels of sport.