Malone Laura A, Hill Nayo M, Tripp Haley, Zipunnikov Vadim, Wolpert Daniel M, Bastian Amy J
Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2025 Mar 11;10(1):13. doi: 10.1038/s41539-025-00304-7.
The ability to adjust movements in response to perturbations is key for an efficient and mature nervous system, which relies on two complementary mechanisms - feedforward adaptation and feedback control. We examined the developmental trajectory of how children employ these two mechanisms using a previously validated visuomotor rotation task, conducted remotely in a large cross-sectional cohort of children aged 3-17 years and adults (n = 656; 353 males & 303 females). Results revealed a protracted developmental trajectory, with children up to ~13-14 years showing immature adaptation. Younger children relied more on feedback control to succeed. When adaptation was the only option, they struggled to succeed, highlighting a limited ability to adapt. Our results show a gradual shift from feedback control to adaptation learning throughout childhood. We also generated percentile curves for adaptation and overall performance, providing a reference for understanding the development of motor adaptation and its trade-off with feedback control.
能够根据扰动调整动作是高效且成熟的神经系统的关键，该系统依赖于两种互补机制——前馈适应和反馈控制。我们使用先前验证过的视觉运动旋转任务，对3至17岁儿童和成人的大型横断面队列（n = 656；353名男性和303名女性）进行远程研究，考察了儿童如何运用这两种机制的发育轨迹。结果显示发育轨迹漫长，13至14岁左右的儿童表现出不成熟的适应。年幼的儿童更多地依赖反馈控制来取得成功。当适应是唯一选择时，他们难以成功，这突出了其适应能力有限。我们的结果表明，在整个童年时期，从反馈控制到适应学习有一个逐渐转变的过程。我们还生成了适应和整体表现的百分位数曲线，为理解运动适应的发展及其与反馈控制的权衡提供了参考。
