Publications by authors named "D Sternad"
Humans can perform exquisite sensorimotor skills, both individually and in teams, from athletes performing rhythmic gymnastics to everyday tasks like carrying a cup of coffee. The "predictive brain" framework suggests that mastering these tasks relies on predictive mechanisms, raising the question of how we deploy such predictions for real-time control and coordination. This review highlights two lines of research: one showing that during the control of complex objects people make the interaction with 'tools' predictable; the second one examines dyadic coordination showing that people make their behavior predictable for their partners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHumans are skillful at manipulating objects that possess nonlinear underactuated dynamics, such as clothes or containers filled with liquids. Several studies suggested that humans implement a predictive model-based strategy to control such objects. However, these studies only considered unconstrained reaching without any object involved or, at most, linear mass-spring systems with relatively simple dynamics.
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- The study investigates how patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) learn new motor skills compared to age-matched controls during a virtual throwing task.
- Both groups improved their performance over three days, but they exhibited different motor learning processes: PD patients started with a slower ball release velocity that increased with practice, while controls began with a faster release that stabilized at a lower rate.
- The research highlights the need to examine various aspects of the learning process to better understand motor skill acquisition in PD, potentially aiding in the development of better rehabilitation strategies.
A growing body of research reveals that autistic individuals exhibit motor coordination challenges. Multiple theoretical frameworks propose that the seemingly disparate features of autism may arise from a common underlying process: a diminished ability to make predictions. Sensorimotor skills, such as catching a ball, critically rely on predicting the ball's trajectory as well as anticipatory coordination of the entire body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Floating ball voice therapy (FBVT) is a voice-controlled virtual environment based on a common treatment component across multiple evidence-based therapies: improved vocal efficiency (target) via practicing voicing with modified resonance and airflow (ingredient). This study preliminarily tested FBVT's effects on outcomes and the potential for its novel variability metrics to predict individual patient generalization.
Method: Ten patients with nonphonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (NPVH) practiced FBVT for 10 days.