Motor Control and Feedback: Important Elements in Rehabilitating Debilitated PAtients
April 7th 2011 12:35
MOTOR LEARNING AND FEEDBACK
Introduction
Motor learning is a set of processes associated with practice and experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability of movement (Schmidt and Lee, 1999). According to van Dijk (2006), in learning of motor skills, motor processes continuously interact with cognitive and sensory processes. Van Dijk’s statement best summarizes the neurological nature of man’s learning.
How does the nervous system facilitate learning especially of a certain skill or movement? It is a common knowledge among health professionals with neurological interest, that first the objective of the movement is identified using input from the senses (e.g. vision, somatosensation, proprioception, and kinesthesia). Then motor plan is developed at the premotor area of the brain. Here the brain decides on which muscles to activate, how much efforts should these muscles exert, and on how the movement is to be performed. After planning, implementation follows as it is being processed by the primary motor cortex. Execution of this motor response will then extend down to the spinal cord, then to the peripheral nerves and at last to the muscles concerned for that certain task.
Voluntary, skilled movements improve through practice. However as an individual performs and practices a new task, it is inevitable that mistakes in the movement patterns are committed. This is especially true among individuals whose level of proficiency on that certain task is novice, or in the cases of others, manifesting with neurologic problems or pain upon movement.
Error corrections should then be done to refine the motor skill. This is when we need cognition efforts for us to recall which of the components of the movement were done correctly and wrongly, and eventually respond to correct mistakes the next time around (Sherwood and Lee, 2003).
How could a learner be compelled to better use his cognition in correcting errors and eventually learning a skill? One of the answers is feedback. Feedback is very important in learning. It aids learners to recall errors and in turn aids them in devising a plan to execute better in practice.
For the next sections of this discourse, we shall be defining in details what feedback is all about. We shall also be identifying its types and examining journals that would be helpful in gauging the efficacy of each feedback type.
Introduction
Motor learning is a set of processes associated with practice and experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability of movement (Schmidt and Lee, 1999). According to van Dijk (2006), in learning of motor skills, motor processes continuously interact with cognitive and sensory processes. Van Dijk’s statement best summarizes the neurological nature of man’s learning.
How does the nervous system facilitate learning especially of a certain skill or movement? It is a common knowledge among health professionals with neurological interest, that first the objective of the movement is identified using input from the senses (e.g. vision, somatosensation, proprioception, and kinesthesia). Then motor plan is developed at the premotor area of the brain. Here the brain decides on which muscles to activate, how much efforts should these muscles exert, and on how the movement is to be performed. After planning, implementation follows as it is being processed by the primary motor cortex. Execution of this motor response will then extend down to the spinal cord, then to the peripheral nerves and at last to the muscles concerned for that certain task.
Voluntary, skilled movements improve through practice. However as an individual performs and practices a new task, it is inevitable that mistakes in the movement patterns are committed. This is especially true among individuals whose level of proficiency on that certain task is novice, or in the cases of others, manifesting with neurologic problems or pain upon movement.
Error corrections should then be done to refine the motor skill. This is when we need cognition efforts for us to recall which of the components of the movement were done correctly and wrongly, and eventually respond to correct mistakes the next time around (Sherwood and Lee, 2003).
How could a learner be compelled to better use his cognition in correcting errors and eventually learning a skill? One of the answers is feedback. Feedback is very important in learning. It aids learners to recall errors and in turn aids them in devising a plan to execute better in practice.
For the next sections of this discourse, we shall be defining in details what feedback is all about. We shall also be identifying its types and examining journals that would be helpful in gauging the efficacy of each feedback type.
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