Motor Learning Flashcards
Motor Control Definition
Production of purposeful movements is mediated by reflexes and executive faculties, depending on the integrated function of all the major parts of the CNS.
Movement cannot be interpreted or modified without considering mental processes of sensory acquisition (the learning or developing of a skill, habit, or quality), perception, motivation and decision.
Main Aspects of Motor Control
- Purposeful movements (not only voluntary)
- Complete a task (effective)
- Spend the least amount of energy possible (economic)
- Maintain the center of gravity (safe)
Inhibitory Control Definition
All mental processes responsible for intentional and voluntary movement control, involving the ability to ignore irrelevant information and disregard relevant memories that would not play a role in solving a specific and immediate problem.
Main Aspects of Inhibitory Control
- Attention
- Behavior
- Internal processes (thoughts and emotions)
- External aspects (distractors)
Attention and Input Acquisition
Thalamic activity influences the quantity and quality of input being passed on to primary sensory areas, impacting perception of environment and self.
Focus of attention can interfere with a motor task involving precision.
Spatial Orientation/Reasoning
Maintaining spatial stability, despite changes in environment, eye movements and body position, is responsible for successful interaction between individual and environment.
Training of spatial orientation improves the motor speed level and skill performance level.
Perceptual-Motor Faculties
Perceptual-motor faculties is the Ability to combine different sources of sensory information, mostly visual, to modulate behavior.
Visual Feedback
Visual feedback is necessary to detect errors in performance relative to the target. These errors serve as information to revise the motor plan and improve performance of subsequent trials.
Visual Capture
Tendency to allow images to overlap other sensory inputs in perception.
Learning in adults vs. children
Less complex processing is needed to be able to adapt a motor skill to a new/different environment in adults compared to children.
This possibly reflects the effect of experience and cognitive flexibility. Learning in adults seems to be strongly related to association of pre-learned procedures.
Action Observation Network and Development
Action observation tasks activate a similar network to adults observing movement.
Action observation network in children presents a bilateral configuration, while adults present a lateralization of this network to the left-brain hemisphere.
What are processes of decision making based on?
- Experience
- “Search for reward” mechanism
- Perception of self
- Perception of environment
Experience and Movement
Memory is important for learning and improvement of performance.
Motor expertise is able to enhance neural flexibility and allows better adaptation of the cognitive control demanded for a task.
Online Modulation and Adaption
The adaption of a movement or part of the motor plan, during the execution of the motor procedure, as a response to an unexpected change in environment, task or body structure/function.
Aspects Influencing Decision Making Processes
- Motor Control
- Inhibitory Control
- Attention and Input Acquisition
- Spatial Orientation and Spatial Reasoning
- Perceptual-Motor Faculties
- Visual Feedback
- Action Observation Network and Development
Learning
Learning is the Adaptation process of gaining or modifying information in cortical (and subcortical) areas, changing structure and function, in order to enhance the effectivness in daily life activity.
Unconscious and Unskilled (Learning)
Unaware of the lack of skill
Conscious and Unskilled (Learning)
Awareness of lack of skill
Conscious and skilled (Learning)
Skill reproduction under high processing.
Preconscious and Skilled (Learning)
Skill reproduction with less processing needed.
Dyspraxia
Liepmann
Disturbance on one of two phases involved in the production of voluntary movements:
Phase 1: Creation of a mental image
Phase 2: Transduction into appropriate motor commands
Stages in Learning
- Cognitive stage
- Associative stage
- Autonomous stage
Cognitive stage
Development of a general understanding of the skill to be learned.
Associative Stage
The transition from “what to do” to “how to do it”. This stage is reached when an individual can identify various possible events that could appear during the performance of a movement (anticipation). The skill is performed with significantly less cognitive load.
Autonomous Stage
The skill becomes more automatic, requiring very little processing and being able to be performed in any setting.
Motor Learning in Treatment Concepts
- Top-down Methods
- Bottom-up Methods
Top-down Methods
- Problem solving strategies are developed by the patient, without being confronted with a solution/desired motor behavior.
- Assistance is given as needed, mostly during the performance, but not during the planification of the activity.
- Suitable for cases where sensorimotor control deficits impair movements, or a skill requires improvement.
Bottom-up Methods
- Movements are being guided in repetitive training of specific actions, mostly regarding ADLs (Activities of daily living).
- require more time to establish and will lack in adaptability.
- creation of a mental picture of the activity or the translation into movement is impaired.
Associative Learning
Refers to forms of conditioning.
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Individual is trained to recognize stimuli that often occur simultaneously or sequentially, leading to a specific response.
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement and punishment can both be used to sculpt an individuals behavior. In this way, reinforced behavioral patterns can persist/develop, while not nourished ones die out over time, since ineffective strategies tend to have their connections inside brain networks disrupted.
Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- Sensorimotor (0-24M)
- Preoperational (2Y-7Y)
- Concrete operational (7Y-12Y)
- Formal operational (12Y+)
Sensorimotor (Cognitive development)
0-24 months
Understand world through sensorimotor experiences. Development of anxiety towards unknown/can’t create expectations/lacks prospection.
Preoperational (Cognitive development)
2 - 7 years
Understand world through language and simple abstract concepts. Egocentric behavior develops in play/interactions.
Concrete Operational (Cognitive development)
7-12 years
Logical thinking and categorization. Able to grasp abstract concepts and arithmetical operations.
Formal Operational (Cognitive development)
12+ years
Hypothesis construction and reasoning. Reasons about actions based on moral values - development of ideologies and concerns about the future.
Rudimentary Movement Phase
Describes development in the first 2 years.
Divided in:
1. Inhibition of primitive reflexes
2. Development of targeted movements and postures
3. Development of communication strategies
What is rudimentary movement phase influenced by?
- Biomechanical development
- Socioeconomic status
- Stimulation available
- Sociocultural features of the environment
- Cognitive development (biological)
- Genetics and parent’s age
Psychomotor Learning
Refers to the development of organized motor behavior as a response to environmental demands and opportunities. Can develop into a routine or ritual, that may be considered as obsessive behavior when impairs the ability to function in or adapt to new environmental demands.
Learning Domains
- Affective domain
- Psychomotor domain
- Cognitive domain
Influence the development of motor skills. They overlap in all the abilities throughout the neuromotor development and should always be taken into account when the desired and/or necessity for the development of new motor skills arise.
Cognitive Domain
Composed by knowledge and development of intellectual skills. Will accelerate learning, has to be activated. Six major categories:
- Knowledge
- Comprehension
- Application
- Analysis
- Synthesis
- Evaluation
Knowledge (Cognitive Domain)
Recall and recognition
Comprehension (Cognitive Domain)
Understand and interpretation of concepts or instructions (recognition of rules and patterns).
Application (Cognitive Domain)
The use of a learned concept in a new situation (unprompted use of abstract concept).
Analysis (Cognitive Domain)
Deconstruction of concepts and ideas, into facts and inferences. Breaking down information.
Information is broken down in analysis and built back up in synthesis. This happens multiple times.
Synthesis (Cognitive Domain)
Creation of new structures, composed of separate parts from other concepts, facts or events (big picture).
Building information back up.
Evaluation (Cognitive Domain)
Ability to judge the value of ideas or concepts, recognizing separate positive and negative aspects of the synthesized concept.
Affective Domain
Composed of feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivation and attitudes, with the purpose of dealing with thoughts and emotions attached to a concept. 5 major categories: - Receiving - Responding - Valuing - Organization - Internalizing
Receiving (Affective Domain)
Awareness and selective attention (willingness to listen)
Responding (Affective Domain)
Attending or reacting to a particular event (compliance, willingness and satisfaction in responding).
Valuing (Affective Domain)
Related to the value an individual attaches to a particular object, person or event. Varies from acceptance to commitment, and from dislike to aversion.
Organization (Affective Domain)
Categorizing values into priorities, through comparison, relations and synthesis.
Internalizing (Affective Domain)
A value system controls behavior, making it consistent, predictable and coherent.
Psychomotor Domain
Composed by acquired motor skills, coordination, speed, precision, distance, procedures and strategies. 7 major categories: - Perception - Set - Guided Response - Mechanism - Complex Overt Response - Adaptation - Origination
Perception (Psychomotor Domain)
Use of sensory cues to guide motor behavior.
Set (Psychomotor Domain)
Mental, physical and emotional readiness to act/react, influenced by a person’s mindset.
Guided Response (Psychomotor Domain)
Imitation or trial and error found at the first steps during the development of a new motor skill (practice makes perfect).
Mechanism (Psychomotor Domain)
Learned patterns can be performed with some accuracy and confidence, but still need guidance at times (intermediate state).
Complex Overt Response (Psychomotor Domain)
Proficiency, often indicated by fast, accurate and high performance with minimum energy cost.
Adaptation (Psychomotor Domain)
Movement patterns are well developed and can now be adapted to different sets.
Origination (Psychomotor Domain)
Creation of a new motor behavior, from synthesis of previously learned, that suits an extremely specific and unexpected event.
Supporting Development of Motor Skills
You should be familiarized with the skill you are teaching and the patients skill level before starting.
- Conceptualization
- Visualization
- Verbalization
- Practice
- Feedback
Conceptualization (Supporting Development of Motor Skills)
Provide all the relevant cognitive elements for the task. Provide all necessary information to perform the activity.
Visualization (Supporting Development of Motor Skills)
Provide basis for imitation (Action Observation). Patient has a visual image of what is going to be done.
Verbalization (Supporting Development of Motor Skills)
Verbalize the activity. Divide the task into subtasks and let the person narrate the steps.
Ability to assess if patient has the cognitive ability to understand the exercise.
Practice (Supporting Development of Motor Skills)
Allow the skill to be practiced in different contexts (variations). Know when to move forward (more difficult) with the activity and when to step back. Patient needs to be able adapt activity to environment.
Feedback (Supporting Development of Motor Skills)
Provide (the possibility) of feedback, allowing reflexion, in the person’s own time.
- Ask patient how it was for him
- Give feedback: what was good, what can be improved.
- What can be done differently, ask patient first, then give advise.
Improving Performance
Suggested procedure:
- Observation
- Feedback
- Stimulation
- Application (gaming)
- Self-instruction
- Self-feedback
Main Abilities and Activities
→Balance and postural control →Spatial orientation and spatial reasoning → Laterality and diadochokinesia (coordination) → Logical thinking → Precise hand movements →
Which systems are involved in balance and postural control?
Visual, motor (alpha and gamma), proprioceptive and vestibular.
Which systems are involved in spatial orientation and spatial reasoning?
Visual, proprioceptive, memory and reasoning.
Which systems are involved in laterality and diadochokinesia (coordination)?
Proprioceptive, memory, reasoning and motor.
Which systems are involved in logical thinking?
Memory and reasoning.
Which systems are involved in precise hand movements?
Proprioceptive, memory, reasoning, motor and visual.
Psychomotor Training
- Discrete
- Continuous
- Closed
- Open
Discrete Psychomotor Training
Has a clear beginning and a clear end. E.g. kicking a ball.
Continuous Psychomotor Training
Not able to distinguish between the beginning and the end. E.g. fishing, squat jumps (when you land the jump you are already in the next squat).
Closed Psychomotor Training
Does not rely on environmental influences. E.g. Shooting at a short distance. Highly controlled environment.
Open Psychomotor Training
Must be continuously adapted to the environment. E.g. Climbing.
Important Points Regarding Psychomotor Training
- Learning is an egocentric process, that demands high levels of sustained attention.
- The stimulation of other domains (cognitive/emotional) might disrupt the necessary concentration during the observation and stimulation phases.
- Practice leads to subcorticalization and adaption of motor procedures.
- Ability to perform is not equivalent to ability to learn!
