Department of Motor Learning Lab, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Prog Brain Res. 2011;191:65-74. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53752-2.00013-8.
Motor learning is an essential part of human behavior, but poorly understood in the context of walking control. Here, we discuss our recent work on locomotor adaptation, which is an error driven motor learning process used to alter spatiotemporal elements of walking. Locomotor adaptation can be induced using a split-belt treadmill that controls the speed of each leg independently. Practicing split-belt walking changes the coordination between the legs, resulting in storage of a new walking pattern. Here, we review findings from this experimental paradigm regarding the learning and generalization of locomotor adaptation. First, we discuss how split-belt walking adaptation develops slowly throughout childhood and adolescence. Second, we demonstrate that conscious effort to change the walking pattern during split-belt training can speed up adaptation but worsens retention. In contrast, distraction (i.e., performing a dual task) during training slows adaptation but improves retention. Finally, we show the walking pattern acquired on the split-belt treadmill generalizes to natural walking when vision is removed. This suggests that treadmill learning can be generalized to different contexts if visual cues specific to the treadmill are removed. These findings allow us to highlight the many future questions that will need to be answered in order to develop more rational methods of rehabilitation for walking deficits.
运动学习是人类行为的重要组成部分，但在行走控制方面的理解还很有限。在这里，我们讨论了我们最近关于运动适应的工作，这是一种错误驱动的运动学习过程，用于改变行走的时空元素。运动适应可以通过控制每条腿速度的分带跑步机来诱导。练习分带行走会改变腿部之间的协调，从而存储新的行走模式。在这里，我们回顾了这个实验范式中关于运动适应的学习和泛化的发现。首先，我们讨论了分带行走适应如何在整个儿童和青少年时期缓慢发展。其次，我们证明在分带训练期间有意识地努力改变行走模式可以加速适应，但会降低保持能力。相比之下，在训练期间分心（即执行双重任务）会减缓适应速度，但会提高保持能力。最后，我们表明在分带跑步机上获得的行走模式在去除视觉时会泛化到自然行走。这表明，如果去除特定于跑步机的视觉线索，跑步机学习可以泛化到不同的环境中。这些发现使我们能够突出许多未来需要回答的问题，以便为行走缺陷制定更合理的康复方法。
