History of Movement Neuroscience

Question 1

motor learning and control

Answer 1

Motor learning – a set of internal processes associated with practice or experience leading to a relatively permanent gain in performance capability

Motor control – an area of study dealing with the understanding of the neural, physical and behavioural aspects of movement

Question 2

cognitive physiology

Answer 2

Richard Shiffrin and Atkinson

• developed the Atkinson model of memory processing with 3 memory systems
• Short-term sensory store, short-term and long-term memory
• The Atkinson model laid the pathway to better understanding of how the brain processes and retains information for cognitive and motor memories

Question 3

education

Answer 3

Franklin Henry

• Looked at gross motor skills (whole body movements)
• And how he could train people to attain high levels of performance

Question 4

neuroscience

Answer 4

Reciprocal Innervation

Charles Sherrington

• Contracting agonist muscle and relaxing antagonist muscle to move body

Question 5

engineering

Answer 5

1. Arthur Melton
   - To find the best fighter pilot
   - Had people do 30 simple tasks like pressing a button for reaction time
   - Found that there was a very poor relationship between performance of simple tasks and complex tasks
2. Paul Fitts
   - Redesigned the cockpit of a fighter plane for cognitive ergonomics
   - Spatial compatibility: humans are very efficient if the tasks are aligned with the visual stimulus ex) 2 buttons (left and right) light turns on left or right, if the lights are aligned with the buttons reaction times are faster, but if they aren’t aligned then people are slower at pressing the buttons and make more mistakes