Motor learning is a ubiquitous feature of human competence. This review focuses on two particular classes of model tasks for studying skill acquisition. The serial reaction time (SRT) task is used to probe how people learn sequences of actions, while adaptation in the context of visuomotor or force field perturbations serves to illustrate how preexisting movements are recalibrated in novel envi...

Acquisition of a new skill is generally associated with a decrease in the need for effortful control over performance, leading to the development of automaticity. Automaticity by definition has been achieved when performance of a primary task is minimally affected by other ongoing tasks. The neural basis of automaticity was examined by testing subjects in a serial reaction time (SRT) task under...

Long-range correlations have been evidenced in a number of experiments, generally using overlearned and overpracticed tasks. The authors hypothesized that long-range correlation could represent the byproduct of learning. They analyzed the series of periods produced by a group of expert and a group of novices during prolonged trials on a ski simulator. Results showed a very low variability in ex...

The relationship between the brain and the environment is flexible, forming the foundation for our ability to learn. Here we review the current state of our understanding of the modifications in the sensorimotor pathway related to sensorimotor learning. We divide the process into three hierarchical levels with distinct goals: (1) sensory perceptual learning, (2) sensorimotor associative learnin...

Motor skill is usually understood as a capability to perform faster and more accurate movements than other, unskilled, individuals. In this study we investigated motor skill learning using a path tracking task, where subjects had to track various curved paths as fast as possible, in the absence of any external perturbations. We found that subjects become better with practice, producing faster a...

BACKGROUND Participation in regular physical activity (PA) during the early years helps children achieve healthy body weight and can substantially improve motor development, bone health, psychosocial health and cognitive development. Despite common assumptions that young children are naturally active, evidence shows that they are insufficiently active for health and developmental benefits. Expl...

Improvement in motor skill performance is known to continue for at least 24 hr following training, yet the relative contributions of time spent awake and asleep are unknown. Here we provide evidence that a night of sleep results in a 20% increase in motor speed without loss of accuracy, while an equivalent period of time during wake provides no significant benefit. Furthermore, a significant co...

A learning approach and associated experiments are described that allow robotic devices to learn the relationship between control actions and sensory feedback, to acquire skills, and to adapt to a changing environment. The approach frames the motor skill learning problem as one involving the co-evolution of perceptual and actuation structures. A memorybased learning approach is taken and a Cach...

This paper presents a new haptic-based virtual environment system for diagnosis and rehabilitation of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients. By using the latest technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR), haptic force feedback and telecommunications, the system can work as an alternative to traditional labor intensive and expensive diagnosis and rehabilitation procedures for TBI patients. Thi...

It has become widely accepted that sleep-dependent consolidation occurs for motor sequence learning based on studies using finger-tapping tasks. Studies using another motor sequence learning task [the serial response time task (SRTT)] have portrayed a more nuanced picture of off-line consolidation, involving both sleep-dependent and daytime consolidation, as well as modifying influences of expl...