Learning from the Physical Consequences of Our Actions Improves Motor Memory.

Actions have consequences. Motor learning involves correcting actions that lead to movement errors and remembering these actions for future behavior. In most laboratory situations, movement errors have no physical consequences and simply indicate the progress of learning.

Savings in sensorimotor learning during balance-challenged walking but not reaching.

Safe and successful motor performance relies on the ability to adapt to physiological and environmental change and retain what is learned. An open question is what factors maximize this retention? One overlooked factor is the degree to which balance is challenged during learning. We propose that the greater need for control and/or perceived threat of falling or injury associated with balance-challenging tasks increases the value assigned to maintaining a learned visuomotor mapping (i.

How aging affects visuomotor adaptation and retention in a precision walking paradigm.

Motor learning is a lifelong process. However, age-related changes to musculoskeletal and sensory systems alter the relationship (or mapping) between sensory input and motor output, and thus potentially affect motor learning. Here we asked whether age affects the ability to adapt to and retain a novel visuomotor mapping learned during overground walking.

Subthreshold stochastic vestibular stimulation affects balance-challenged standing and walking.

Subthreshold stochastic vestibular stimulation (SVS) is thought to enhance vestibular sensitivity and improve balance. However, it is unclear how SVS affects standing and walking when balance is challenged, particularly when the eyes are open. It is also unclear how different methods to determine stimulation intensity influence the effects.

Challenging balance during sensorimotor adaptation increases generalization.

From reaching to walking, real-life experience suggests that people can generalize between motor behaviors. One possible explanation for this generalization is that real-life behaviors often challenge our balance. We propose that the exacerbated body motions associated with balance-challenged whole body movements increase the value to the nervous system of using a comprehensive internal model to control the task.