Lecture 1: Theories on Motor control

Question 1

What are 3 theories on motor control

Answer 1

1. Motor Programming Theories
2. Systems Theory
3. Ecological theory

Question 2

What is the motor programming theory

Answer 2

CNS isn’t a system that reacts
• However sensory input plays a role for modulating activity
• There is a specific neural circuit that are hardwired for stereotypical movement (i.e. walking), termed Central Pattern Generators (CPGs)
• Concepts can be stored as a motor program
• CNS sends motor program regardless what body part involved (i.e. writing your name with your right hand vs the left hand)

Question 3

When you see Central pattern generators (CPGs) which theory are these associated with

Answer 3

Motor programming theories

Question 4

What are some limitations to motor programming theories

Answer 4

•Sensory is vital for motor control
•Does not account for muscles and environmental changes
– elbow flexion w/o weight then with weight, the motor program is sent to do elbow flexion, but must be a modification

Question 5

What are the clinical implications for motor programming theories

Answer 5

•Cannot simply reeducate specific muscles needed for a functional task, but must do the functional task in order to engage motor programming

Question 6

Systems theory aka

Answer 6

dynamic system theory

Question 7

What is the system theory

Answer 7

• You have synergies
• Moving from one synergy program to another, there must be a “control parameter”, i.e. velocity changes makes a walk into a run
• Patterns are learned by releasing degrees of freedom
• Variability

Question 8

Explain variability and the systems theory

Answer 8

• Normal, unlike motor programming, it is seen as an error in control
• Needed in order for the system to be more flexible and reduce repetitive strain injuries
• Proposed that we need variability in motion in order to transition to learn a new movement pattern

Question 9

Limitations with the system theory

Answer 9

• Nervous system has a less of an important role

Question 10

What are the clinical implications for the system theory

Answer 10

Important during motor learning
• Must look at the mechanical and neural component of movement
• Must look interactions with environment.
–i.e. having a pt walk slower may help safety, but increase velocity helps the body move with greater ease due to momentum
• Variability in motion may be encouraged S

Question 11

What is the ecological theory

Answer 11

• Our motor systems allow us to interact with our environment
• Perception guides our movements i.e. catching a ball
• Sensation is not important as perception
• So how a person detects factors in their environment is key
–• Importance of cues

Question 12

Limitations of ht ecological theory

Answer 12

Less emphasis on the nervous system

Question 13

Clinical implications of the ecological theory

Answer 13

• Must look at the environment with emphasis of a goal in mind
• Then look at the multiple ways one can achieve a task with different movement strategies
• PTs must constantly change the environment so the patient’s motor system learns different ways to achieving the task and pick up what are the common features shared in all of the tasks being achieved

Question 14

what is motor learning

Answer 14

A set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for responding and producing skilled action

basically having motor control (ability to make movements)

Question 15

What is the difference between performance and learning

Answer 15

performance is the temporary ability to acquire a task

while learning is the ability to retain the task later

Question 16

What is the key variable that promotes behavioral and neuroanatomical recovery?

Answer 16

Practice

Question 17

What are the two forms of long term memory (aka)

Answer 17

Declarative learning and Non declarative

aka

Explicit and Implicit

Question 18

What is explicit learning? aka?

Answer 18

Declarative learning

recollection of facts and events

Question 19

What is implicit learning? aka?

Answer 19

Non-declarative learning

ability to perform learned skills or activities

Question 20

What two types of learning are associated with nondeclarative learning

Answer 20

non-associative learning

and

associative learning

Question 21

non-associative learning and be further broken up into two categories which are?

Answer 21

Habituation and Sensitization

Question 22

Associative learning can be broken up further into 3 categories of learning, which are?

Answer 22

classical conditioning

operant conditioning

procedural learning

Question 23

What is habituation?

Answer 23

Occurs with repeated exposure of a single stimulus
• Nervous system learns about the characteristics of that stimulus.
• Habituation is a decrease in responsiveness that occurs as a result of repeated exposure to a non-painful stimulus

– Used to treat dizziness in patients with certain types of vestibular dysfunction. Patients are asked to repeatedly move in ways that provoke their dizziness. This repetition results in habituation of the dizziness response.

– Children are repeatedly exposed to gradually increasing levels of cutaneous inputs in an effort to decrease their sensitivity to this stimulus

Question 24

What is sensitization?

Answer 24

• Sensitization is an increased responsiveness following a threatening or noxious stimulus
• There are times when increasing a patient’s sensitivity to a threatening stimulus is important.

Question 25

Is there ever a time when increasing a pts sensitivity to a threatening stimulus could be important/beneficial?

Answer 25

Yes, for example, increasing a patient’s awareness of stimuli indicating likelihood for impending falls might be an important aspect of balance retraining.

Question 26

What is key for a person to learn?

Answer 26

The key is that a person must be able to detect the relationship in order to learn. If this is impaired, it limits their ability to use this strategy for learning.

(Classical conditioning and operant conditioning)

Question 27

What type of learning is classical conditioning and what is it?

Answer 27

Associative learning

It consists of learning to pair two stimuli.
• An initially weak stimulus (the conditioned stimulus [CS]) becomes highly effective in producing a response when it becomes associated with another, stronger, stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus [UCS]).
• The CS is usually something that initially produces no response (like a bell).
• In contrast, the UCS, which could be food, always produces a response.
• After repeated pairing of the conditioned and the UCS, one begins to see a conditioned response (CR) to the CS.
• Remember, it originally produced no response

Question 28

Classical Conditioning Rehab Example

Answer 28

If we repeatedly give patients a verbal cue in conjunction with physical assistance when making a movement, they may eventually begin to make the movement with only the verbal cue.

Question 29

What type of learning is classical conditioning and what is it?

Answer 29

Associative learning

It is basically trial-and-error learning.
• Associate a certain response, from among many that we have made, with a consequence.

Question 30

Which learning style is basically trial and error learning?

Answer 30

operational conditioning

Question 31

Operational Conditioning Rehab Example and what might a PT do to help pt

Answer 31

A person afraid of falling might become less active.

A PT can help that person become more active by using desensitization to help decrease the fear of falling

Question 32

How can PTs use operational conditioning

Answer 32

encourage problem solving

give verbal praise for a job well done

Question 33

What type of learning is procedural learning and what is it?

Answer 33

Associative learning

• Performed automatically without attention
• Develops slowly through repetition of an act over many trials.
• Like other forms of implicit learning, procedural learning does not require awareness, attention, or other higher cognitive processes

Question 34

What typically leads to procedural learning?

Answer 34

Repeating a movement continuously under varying circumstances would typically lead to procedural learning.

Question 35

What is the difference between nondeclarative learning and declarative learning

Answer 35

nondeclarative is more automatic (reflexive) and requires frequent repetition

while

declarative learning involves knowledge that can consciously be recalled. It requires attention and awareness

Question 36

What is declarative learning?

Answer 36

The ability to recall factual knowledge
• Assessed by conventional tests of recall and recognition
• To differentiate, you can put in into a declarative statement
– “First I button the top one then the bottom one”

Question 37

Can declarative learning become non declarative learning

Answer 37

Yes, through constant repetition

ex: initially tell the patient to scoot forward in the chair and lean forward when performing a sit to stand, with time those verbal cues are diminished and non declarative

Question 38

What are advantages of declarative learning?

Answer 38

-It can be practiced mentally in the same way in which it was learn
• i.e. mental imagery of a sporty activity or ADL

Great to perform during breaks, especially if a patient fatigues easily

Question 39

What are some disadvantages to declarative learning

Answer 39

A person must verbally repeat back the steps

Difficulty to perform if they have any dysfunction in cognitive and/or language

Question 40

What are the 4 different types of processing that are involved in declarative/explicit learning

Answer 40

• encoding
• consolidation
• storage
• retrieval

Question 41

what is encoding? And encoding depends on?

Answer 41

Understanding and perceiving the new knowledge to the existing knowledge

• Depends on

• The level of motivation to learn
• The extent of attention to the information
• The ability to associate it meaningfully with information that is already in memory

Question 42

Consolidation is?

Answer 42

The process of making the information stable for long-term memory storage and involves structural changes in neurons.

Goal is to make a memory trace after the learning experience

Question 43

When does consolidation happen?

Answer 43

During slow wave sleep

Question 44

Storage involves?

Answer 44

The long-term retention of memories and has a vast capacity compared to the limited capacity of short-term or working memory.

(you can do more of it)

Question 45

Retrieval involves?

Answer 45

• The recall of information from different long-term storage sites.
• It is subject to distortion, since an individual reconstructs the memories from a combination of different sites.
• It is most accurate when retrieved in the same context in which it was created

Question 46

Clinical Implication of Declarative Learning

Answer 46

Teaching movement skills can be enhanced when the pt is highly motivated, attending fully to the task, and able to relate or integrate the new information to information they already know about the task