Part Iii Human Motor Learning

Part III Human Motor Learning

Human Learning Aaron S. Benjamin, J. Steven de Belle, Bruce Etnyre, Thad A. Polk Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

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Introduction A Survey of Motor Learning Concepts and Findings Bruce Etnyre Rice University

Compared to other areas of scientific study, such as neurophysiology or experimental psychology, the study of motor control and learning is relatively young. The segregated endeavors in neurophysiology and experimental psychology began to converge in the late 1960s and early 1970s as behavioral scientists shifted interest to the intervening processes occurring between the activities of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the resultant overt movements. Progress in research of learning skills has advanced from the process-oriented approach to the identification of neural mechanisms involved throughout the development of motor learning and control. The chapters in this section include reviews of issues related to the merging of neurophysiology and experimental psychology by motor control and learning scientists. The complex and elegant interaction of the central nervous system with how movements are performed and learned is addressed from different perspectives in the following chapters. Empirical evidence from numerous studies is summarized in support of learning theories related to central neural control of simple and complex movements, variability of synergistic actions for coordinated movements, and neuroanatomical examination of how brain structures such as the cerebellum, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex relate to motor learning and motor memory. Approaches to our understanding of how the mind controls movements, both skilled and unskilled, have been addressed from numerous perspectives. These include theoretical descriptions related to performance and learning of the classic work from Adams, Berstein, Feldman, Fitts, Keele, Schmidt, and others, as well as the chapter authors. Numerous laboratory and ‘‘real-life’’ paradigms have been devised from a multitude of movement

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Part III

tasks from simple to complex for testing motor learning theories from the combined neurological and psychological perspectives. Technological advances, such as positron emission tomography (PET scan), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), have also promoted our understanding of how, where, when, and why motor learning occurs across the phases or stages of learning. We have also gained valuable information about motor learning from patients with central nervous system pathologies, such as Parkinson’s disease, cerebral and cerebellar vascular accidents, as well as from animal studies. All these concepts and more are discussed in these motor learning chapters.