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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 24, 2025

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

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Published on: February 12, 2017

Learning New Feedforward Motor Commands Based on Feedback Responses.

Rodrigo S Maeda¹, Paul L Gribble², J Andrew Pruszynski³

¹Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON N6A5B7, Canada; Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON N6A5B7, Canada; Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON N6A5C2, Canada.

Current Biology : CB

|April 11, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Motor learning modifies voluntary commands and reflexes. This study shows that learning in reflexes can also influence voluntary motor commands, demonstrating bidirectional transfer in motor control.

Keywords:

feedback control internal model intersegmental dynamics motor learning reaching stretch reflex upper limb

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Published on: August 2, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Motor Learning

Background:

Motor learning alters both voluntary (feedforward) motor commands and reflex (feedback) responses.
This motor adaptation is believed to involve shared neural circuits across the spinal cord, brainstem, and cerebral cortex.
The transfer of learning between feedforward and feedback systems is thought to be bidirectional, but evidence for feedback-to-feedforward transfer is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the bidirectional transfer of motor learning between feedforward and feedback control systems.
To demonstrate that learning in reflexes can influence subsequent voluntary motor commands.
To explore the underlying shared neural mechanisms of motor learning and transfer.

Main Methods:

Utilized very short mechanical perturbations to elicit stretch reflexes.
Instructed participants to actively suppress voluntary responses to perturbations.
Employed behavioral analysis to assess changes in both reflex sensitivity and voluntary motor commands.

Main Results:

Successfully elicited reflex learning while minimizing voluntary responses.
Demonstrated a transfer of learning from feedback (reflex) responses to feedforward (voluntary) motor commands.
Confirmed that motor learning transfer between feedforward and feedback systems is bidirectional.

Conclusions:

Motor learning exhibits bidirectional transfer between feedforward and feedback motor control.
Shared neural circuits are fundamental to motor learning and the transfer of this learning.
This study provides novel evidence for feedback-to-feedforward motor learning transfer.