Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Generalizing movement patterns following shoulder fixation

View ORCID ProfileRodrigo S. Maeda, Julia M. Zdybal, View ORCID ProfilePaul L. Gribble, View ORCID ProfileJ. Andrew Pruszynski
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/678623
Rodrigo S. Maeda
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaRobarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Rodrigo S. Maeda
Julia M. Zdybal
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaRobarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Paul L. Gribble
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Paul L. Gribble
J. Andrew Pruszynski
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaRobarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaDept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for J. Andrew Pruszynski
  • For correspondence: andrew.pruszynski@uwo.ca
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

A common goal of motor learning is generalizing newly learned movement patterns beyond the training context. Here we tested whether learning a new physical property of the arm during self-initiated reaching generalizes to new arm configurations. One hundred human participants performed a single-joint elbow reaching task and/or countered mechanical perturbations that created pure elbow motion. Participants did so with the shoulder joint either free to rotate or locked by the robotic manipulandum. With the shoulder free, we found activation of shoulder extensor muscles for pure elbow extension trials, as required to counter the interaction torques that arise at the shoulder due to forearm rotation. After locking the shoulder joint, we found a substantial reduction in shoulder muscle activity that developed slowly over many trials. This reduction is appropriate because locking the shoulder joint cancels the interaction torques that arise at the shoulder to do forearm rotation and thus removes the need to activate shoulder muscles. In our first three experiments, we tested whether this reduction generalizes when reaching is self-initiated in (1) a different initial shoulder orientation, (2) a different initial elbow orientation and (3) for a different reach distance/speed. We found reliable generalization across initial shoulder orientation and reach distance/speed but not for initial elbow orientation. In our fourth experiment, we tested whether generalization is also transferred to feedback control by applying mechanical perturbations and observing reflex responses in a distinct shoulder orientation. We found robust transfer to feedback control.

New & Noteworthy Here we show that learning to reduce shoulder muscles activity following shoulder fixation generalizes to other movement conditions but does not generalize globally, indicating that the nervous system does not implement such learning by modifying a general internal model of arm dynamics.

Disclosures The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Footnotes

  • Grants: This work was supported by a grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grant to J.A.P.: RGPIN-2015-06714). R.S.M. received a salary award from CNPq/Brazil. J.M.Z. received an Undergraduate Student Research Award from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. J.A.P. received a salary award from the Canada Research Chairs program.

  • Added control experiments to ensure learning can occur in the generalization postures. Several other changes in presentation of the material and associated analyses.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted November 11, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Generalizing movement patterns following shoulder fixation
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
Share
Generalizing movement patterns following shoulder fixation
Rodrigo S. Maeda, Julia M. Zdybal, Paul L. Gribble, J. Andrew Pruszynski
bioRxiv 678623; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/678623
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Generalizing movement patterns following shoulder fixation
Rodrigo S. Maeda, Julia M. Zdybal, Paul L. Gribble, J. Andrew Pruszynski
bioRxiv 678623; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/678623

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (1519)
  • Biochemistry (2473)
  • Bioengineering (1727)
  • Bioinformatics (9648)
  • Biophysics (3884)
  • Cancer Biology (2961)
  • Cell Biology (4173)
  • Clinical Trials (135)
  • Developmental Biology (2620)
  • Ecology (4084)
  • Epidemiology (2031)
  • Evolutionary Biology (6868)
  • Genetics (5195)
  • Genomics (6482)
  • Immunology (2176)
  • Microbiology (6909)
  • Molecular Biology (2746)
  • Neuroscience (17197)
  • Paleontology (125)
  • Pathology (425)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (703)
  • Physiology (1050)
  • Plant Biology (2478)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (642)
  • Synthetic Biology (828)
  • Systems Biology (2680)
  • Zoology (429)