Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
J Neurophysiol. 2024 Sep 1;132(3):1025-1037. doi: 10.1152/jn.00425.2023. Epub 2024 Aug 20.
Information about another person's movement kinematics obtained through visual observation activates brain regions involved in motor learning. Observation-related changes in these brain areas are associated with adaptive changes to feedforward neural control of muscle activation and behavioral improvements in limb movement control. However, little is known about the stability of these observation-related effects over time. Here, we used force channel trials to probe changes in lateral force production at various time points (1 min, 10 min, 30 min, 60 min, 24 h) after participants either physically performed, or observed another individual performing upper limb reaching movements that were perturbed by novel, robot-generated forces (a velocity-dependent force-field). Observers learned to predictively generate directionally and temporally specific compensatory forces during reaching, consistent with the idea that they acquired an internal representation of the novel dynamics. Participants who physically practiced in the force-field showed adaptation that was detectable at all time points, with some decay detected after 24 h. Observation-related adaptation was less temporally stable in comparison, decaying slightly after 1 h and undetectable at 24 h. Observation induced less adaptation overall than physical practice, which could explain differences in temporal stability. Visually acquired representations of movement dynamics are retained and continue to influence behavior for at least 1 h after observation. We used force channel probes in an upper limb force-field reaching task in humans to compare the durability of learning-related changes that occurred through visual observation to those after physical movement practice. Visually acquired representations of movement dynamics continued to influence behavior for at least 1 h after observation. Our findings point to a 1-h window during which visual observation of another person could play a role in motor learning.
通过视觉观察获得的关于他人运动运动学的信息会激活参与运动学习的大脑区域。这些大脑区域与观察相关的变化与肌肉激活的前馈神经控制的适应性变化以及肢体运动控制的行为改善有关。然而，关于这些观察相关的影响随时间的稳定性知之甚少。在这里，我们使用力通道试验在参与者物理执行或观察另一个人执行上肢伸展运动时的不同时间点（1 分钟，10 分钟，30 分钟，60 分钟，24 小时）后，探测在各种时间点处的侧向力产生的变化，这些运动受到新颖的机器人产生的力（速度相关力场）的干扰。观察者学会在到达时预测性地产生方向和时间特定的补偿力，这与他们获得新颖动态的内部表示一致。在力场中实际练习的参与者显示出可检测到的适应，在 24 小时后检测到一些衰减。与物理实践相比，观察相关的适应在时间上稳定性较差，在 1 小时后略有衰减，在 24 小时后无法检测到。观察引起的适应总体上比物理实践少，这可以解释时间稳定性的差异。运动动力学的视觉获取表示被保留下来，并在观察后至少 1 小时继续影响行为。我们在人类上肢力场到达任务中使用力通道探针来比较通过视觉观察发生的与物理运动实践相关的学习相关变化的耐久性。运动动力学的视觉获取表示在观察后至少 1 小时继续影响行为。我们的发现指出了观察他人可以在运动学习中发挥作用的 1 小时窗口。
