journal.pone.0046466.pdf (297.95 kB)
Download fileVisuomotor Learning Enhanced by Augmenting Instantaneous Trajectory Error Feedback during Reaching
journal contribution
posted on 2013-12-13, 00:00 authored by James L. Patton, Yejun John Wei, Preeti Bajaj, Robert A. ScheidtWe studied reach adaptation to a 30 degrees visuomotor rotation to determine
whether augmented error feedback can promote faster and more complete motor
learning. Four groups of healthy adults reached with their unseen arm to visual
targets surrounding a central starting point. A manipulandum tracked hand motion
and projected a cursor onto a display immediately above the horizontal plane of
movement. For one group, deviations from the ideal movement were amplified with a
gain of 2 whereas another group experienced a gain of 3.1. The third group
experienced an offset equal to the average error seen in the initial
perturbations, while a fourth group served as controls. Learning in the gain 2
and offset groups was nearly twice as fast as controls. Moreover, the offset
group averaged more reduction in error. Such error augmentation techniques may be
useful for training novel visuomotor transformations as required of robotic
teleoperators or in movement rehabilitation of the neurologically impaired.