Practice is necessary to improve motor skills. Even if one performs poorly at first, one's athletic performance improves through repeated exercise due to the reduction of motor errors as the brain learns.
However, it's important to remember that there are two types of errors: motor errors caused by poor motor control and target errors caused by unexpected target movements.
For example, if you swung a bat aiming at a ball coming straight to the middle of the strike zone and missed your swing 10 cm over the ball, the missed swing was caused by your motor error. So, the connection between your intention and your movement control needs to be adjusted downward.
On the other hand, if you missed the ball because it suddenly moved downwards 10 cm below the center of the strike zone after going through the center, the missed swing was caused by unexpected movement of the target. So, when it comes to these target errors, it would be better to learn using a system to predict the target's move instead of changing the connection between intention and movement control.
Using the monkey parietal lobe, two researchers examined (1) brain regions to detect motor and target errors, and (2) whether error signals from these regions were really used for learning. Their research results were published in Current Biology.
They found that the parietal lob of the cerebral cortex, the region in which signals of visual, acoustic, and somatic sensations are perceived, distinguished the causes of motor errors in arm reaching movements and provided signals to compensate for these errors. They also revealed that Brodmann area 5 detected self-generated motor errors and provided signals for adaptation and that Brodmann area 7 detected target errors caused by target movements and provided error signals for adaptation.
This study verified that the brain does not automatically detect the discrepancy between the hand and target positions, i.e., error, but the brain distinguishes motor error from target error and performs adaptation using the two distinctive systems.
This discovery will lead not only to the development of effective learning of sports, but also to the improvement of autonomous driving systems and the development of effective learning methods for robot control.
http://resou.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/research/2018/20180706_1
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30692-4
Latest News
Metabolic rewiring promotes…
By newseditor
Posted 18 Apr
A drug to prevent flu-induc…
By newseditor
Posted 18 Apr
New origin of deep brain waves
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Starving cells hijack prote…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Miniature battery-free epid…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Other Top Stories
First scans show how the LSD drug affects the brain
Read more
Astrocytes and neuropathic pain!
Read more
A mutation in a mitochondrial protein leads to Abeta accumulation
Read more
How the brain consolidates memory during deep sleep
Read more
Mouse pups with human mutation show signs of stuttering
Read more
Protocols
MemPrep, a new technology f…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
A tangible method to assess…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
Stem cell-derived vessels-o…
By newseditor
Posted 06 Apr
Single-cell biclustering fo…
By newseditor
Posted 01 Apr
Modular dual-color BiAD sen…
By newseditor
Posted 31 Mar
Publications
How does the microbiota con…
By newseditor
Posted 18 Apr
The integrated stress respo…
By newseditor
Posted 18 Apr
The immunobiology of herpes…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Circulating microbiome DNA…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Spindle oscillations in com…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar