Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Indirect Motor Pathways

Indirect Motor Pathways

The indirect motor or extrapyramidal pathways originate in the brainstem, the lower portion of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord. They consist of several distinct tracts, each with specialized functions. The four main tracts of the indirect motor pathways are the vestibulospinal tract, the reticulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the rubrospinal tract.
The vestibulospinal tract originates in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The vestibular system detects changes in...

Hierarchy of Motor Control

Hierarchy of Motor Control

The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.

Motor Units

Motor Units

The motor unit is a fundamental component of the neuromuscular system and plays a crucial role in coordinating muscle contractions. It consists of a somatic motor neuron, which connects and controls multiple skeletal muscle fibers, forming a single functional segment. The axon of the motor neuron branches out and establishes synaptic connections known as neuromuscular junctions with individual muscle fibers within the motor unit.
Motor units come in different sizes, with smaller units...

Direct Motor Pathways

Direct Motor Pathways

The direct motor pathways, also known as the pyramidal tracts, are a group of neural pathways that originate in the brain and descend through the spinal cord. They control the voluntary movement of the body. There are two major direct motor pathways: the corticospinal and the corticobulbar tracts.
The corticospinal tract is responsible for the voluntary movement of the limbs and trunk. It originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain and descends through the cerebrum's internal capsule and...

Brainstem

Brainstem

The brainstem, located inferior to the brain and superior to the spinal cord, serves as a bridge between the cerebrum and the spinal cord. It plays a vital role in relaying information and controlling critical life functions. It comprises three primary regions: the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata.
The Midbrain
The midbrain is located beneath the diencephalon and connects the cerebrum with the lower parts of the brain. The cerebral peduncles are prominent midbrain structures that house the...

Motor Unit Stimulation

Motor Unit Stimulation

When the neuron of a motor unit fires an action potential, it triggers a series of events, leading to a twitch contraction in the muscle fibers. The process of excitation-contraction coupling is crucial in relaying the action potential to the muscle fibers.
The latent period of contraction marks the onset of excitation-contraction coupling, when the action potential propagates across the sarcolemma, preparing the muscle fibers for contraction. As the fibers enter the contraction phase, the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch.

Nature human behaviour·2026

Same author

Linking motor working memory to explicit and implicit motor learning.

Journal of neurophysiology·2025

Same author

The human cerebellum encodes temporally sensitive reinforcement learning signals.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Mental graphs structure the storage and retrieval of visuomotor associations.

Nature human behaviour·2025

Same author

Linking Motor Working Memory to Explicit and Implicit Motor Learning.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2024

Same journal

In This Issue.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Correction for Otsuki et al., Extracellular sulfatases support cartilage homeostasis by regulating BMP and FGF signaling pathways.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Hive mind: Microbial communities and the making of memory.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Targets for disease modification in schizophrenia: New findings add to evidence for the involvement of the immune complement system.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Correction for Wang et al., The role of reduced aerosol masking from air pollutant emission reductions in recent global warming acceleration (2013-2023).

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same journal

Correction for Mishra, Ecology is not yet ready for AI-and why that matters.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

Motor learning without movement.

Olivia A Kim¹, Alexander D Forrence², Samuel D McDougle^2,3

¹Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|July 20, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Implicit motor adaptation can occur without overt movement. The brain computes sensory prediction errors (SPEs) during motor planning alone, driving learning even when no movement is executed.

Keywords:

forward model mental imagery predictive coding supervised learning

More Related Videos

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Learning

Background:

Prediction errors are crucial for learning and performance improvement.
Implicit motor adaptation is traditionally linked to sensory prediction errors (SPEs) arising from movement execution.
Recent findings suggest the brain can generate predictions from motor imagery or planning.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if motor planning and sensory feedback suffice for implicit motor adaptation.
To determine if SPE computation and subsequent adaptation occur without overt movement execution.

Main Methods:

Visuomotor adaptation task with human participants.
Trials involved reaching cues, with some movements withheld.
Measured implicit motor adaptation using single-trial error feedback.

Main Results:

Errors on both movement and no-movement trials induced adaptation.
Adaptation persisted in the absence of movement, even when errors were absent during movement trials.
Learning occurred even when movement and sensory feedback trajectories were decoupled.

Conclusions:

The brain can compute SPEs that drive implicit adaptation without overt movement.
Motor commands can be adapted even when not overtly produced, based on planning and feedback alone.