RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Use-Dependent and Error-Based Learning of Motor Behaviors
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 5159
OP 5166
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5406-09.2010
VO 30
IS 15
A1 Diedrichsen, Jörn
A1 White, Olivier
A1 Newman, Darren
A1 Lally, Níall
YR 2010
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/15/5159.abstract
AB Human motor behavior is constantly adapted through the process of error-based learning. When the motor system encounters an error, its estimate about the body and environment will change, and the next movement will be immediately modified to counteract the underlying perturbation. Here, we show that a second mechanism, use-dependent learning, simultaneously changes movements to become more similar to the last movement. In three experiments, participants made reaching movements toward a horizontally elongated target, such that errors in the initial movement direction did not have to be corrected. Along this task-redundant dimension, we were able to induce use-dependent learning by passively guiding movements in a direction angled by 8° from the previous direction. In a second study, we show that error-based and use-dependent learning can change motor behavior simultaneously in opposing directions by physically constraining the direction of active movements. After removal of the constraint, participants briefly exhibit an error-based aftereffect against the direction of the constraint, followed by a longer-lasting use-dependent aftereffect in the direction of the constraint. In the third experiment, we show that these two learning mechanisms together determine the solution the motor system adopts when learning a motor task.