Lecture 1: Theories on Motor control Flashcards
What are 3 theories on motor control
- Motor Programming Theories
- Systems Theory
- Ecological theory
What is the motor programming theory
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)
When you see Central pattern generators (CPGs) which theory are these associated with
Motor programming theories
What are some limitations to motor programming theories
•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
What are the clinical implications for motor programming theories
•Cannot simply reeducate specific muscles needed for a functional task, but must do the functional task in order to engage motor programming
Systems theory aka
dynamic system theory
What is the system theory
- 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
Explain variability and the systems theory
- 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
Limitations with the system theory
• Nervous system has a less of an important role
What are the clinical implications for the system theory
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
What is the ecological theory
• 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
Limitations of ht ecological theory
Less emphasis on the nervous system
Clinical implications of the ecological theory
- 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
what is motor learning
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)
What is the difference between performance and learning
performance is the temporary ability to acquire a task
while learning is the ability to retain the task later
What is the key variable that promotes behavioral and neuroanatomical recovery?
Practice
What are the two forms of long term memory (aka)
Declarative learning and Non declarative
aka
Explicit and Implicit
What is explicit learning? aka?
Declarative learning
recollection of facts and events
What is implicit learning? aka?
Non-declarative learning
ability to perform learned skills or activities
What two types of learning are associated with nondeclarative learning
non-associative learning
and
associative learning
non-associative learning and be further broken up into two categories which are?
Habituation and Sensitization
Associative learning can be broken up further into 3 categories of learning, which are?
classical conditioning
operant conditioning
procedural learning
What is habituation?
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
What is sensitization?
- 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.
Is there ever a time when increasing a pts sensitivity to a threatening stimulus could be important/beneficial?
Yes, for example, increasing a patient’s awareness of stimuli indicating likelihood for impending falls might be an important aspect of balance retraining.
What is key for a person to learn?
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)
What type of learning is classical conditioning and what is it?
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
Classical Conditioning Rehab Example
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.
What type of learning is classical conditioning and what is it?
Associative learning
It is basically trial-and-error learning.
• Associate a certain response, from among many that we have made, with a consequence.
Which learning style is basically trial and error learning?
operational conditioning
Operational Conditioning Rehab Example and what might a PT do to help pt
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
How can PTs use operational conditioning
encourage problem solving
give verbal praise for a job well done
What type of learning is procedural learning and what is it?
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
What typically leads to procedural learning?
Repeating a movement continuously under varying circumstances would typically lead to procedural learning.
What is the difference between nondeclarative learning and declarative learning
nondeclarative is more automatic (reflexive) and requires frequent repetition
while
declarative learning involves knowledge that can consciously be recalled. It requires attention and awareness
What is declarative learning?
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”
Can declarative learning become non declarative learning
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
What are advantages of declarative learning?
-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
What are some disadvantages to declarative learning
A person must verbally repeat back the steps
Difficulty to perform if they have any dysfunction in cognitive and/or language
What are the 4 different types of processing that are involved in declarative/explicit learning
- encoding
- consolidation
- storage
- retrieval
what is encoding? And encoding depends on?
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
Consolidation is?
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
When does consolidation happen?
During slow wave sleep
Storage involves?
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)
Retrieval involves?
- 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
Clinical Implication of Declarative Learning
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
