Exploration of joint redundancy but not task space variability facilitates supervised motor learning

Singh, Puneet and Jana, Sumitash and Ghosal, Ashitava and Murthy, Aditya (2016) Exploration of joint redundancy but not task space variability facilitates supervised motor learning. In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 113 (50). pp. 14414-14419.

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Abstract

The number of joints and muscles in a human arm is more than what is required for reaching to a desired point in 3D space. Although previous studies have emphasized how such redundancy and the associated flexibility may play an important role in path planning, control of noise, and optimization of motion, whether and how redundancy might promote motor learning has not been investigated. In this work, we quantify redundancy space and investigate its significance and effect on motor learning. We propose that a larger redundancy space leads to faster learning across subjects. We observed this pattern in subjects learning novel kinematics (visuomotor adaptation) and dynamics (force-field adaptation). Interestingly, we also observed differences in the redundancy space between the dominant hand and nondominant hand that explained differences in the learning of dynamics. Taken together, these results provide support for the hypothesis that redundancy aids in motor learning and that the redundant component of motor variability is not noise.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2101 CONSTITUTION AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20418 USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2017 10:14
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2018 11:44
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/55907

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