Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Koganei-shi, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 10;8(1):13559. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31825-4.
Humans and animals can flexibly switch rules to generate the appropriate response to the same sensory stimulus, e.g., we kick a soccer ball toward a friend on our team, but we kick the ball away from a friend who is traded to an opposing team. Most motor learning experiments have relied on a fixed rule; therefore, the effects of switching rules on motor learning are unclear. Here, we study the availability of motor learning effects when a rule in the training phase is different from a rule in the probe phase. Our results suggest that switching a rule causes partial rather than perfect availability. To understand the neural mechanisms inherent in our results, we verify that a computational model can explain our experimental results when each neural unit has different activities, but the total population activity is the same in the same planned movement with different rules. Thus, we conclude that switching rules causes modulations in individual neural activities under the same population activity, resulting in a partial transfer of learning effects for the same planned movements. Our results indicate that sports training and rehabilitation should include various situations even when the same motions are required.
人类和动物可以灵活地切换规则，从而对相同的感觉刺激做出适当的反应，例如，我们将足球踢向自己队的朋友，但会将球踢开踢向被交易到对方球队的朋友。大多数运动学习实验都依赖于固定规则；因此，切换规则对运动学习的影响尚不清楚。在这里，我们研究了当训练阶段的规则与探测阶段的规则不同时，运动学习效果的可用性。我们的研究结果表明，切换规则会导致部分可用性，而不是完全可用性。为了理解我们研究结果中固有的神经机制，我们验证了在每个神经单元具有不同活动的情况下，计算模型可以解释我们的实验结果，但是在具有不同规则的相同计划运动中，总群体活动是相同的。因此，我们得出结论，切换规则会导致在相同的群体活动下个体神经活动的调制，从而导致相同计划运动的学习效果部分转移。我们的研究结果表明，运动训练和康复应包括各种情况，即使需要执行相同的动作。
