Workshop on Novel Approaches of Systems Neuroscience to Sports and Rehabilitation

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[ Talk 2 ] 14:20

Bilateral interactions between action choice learning and motor learning by humans
Ganesh Gowrishankar
CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory

In order to improve performance in sports, sportsmen have to learn both, to make the correct choice among possible actions that enable the task (choice learning), and to execute the chosen action while considering the dynamics of the environment and their own body (motor learning). Traditionally, choice learning and motor learning have been extensively examined but as distinct processes enabled by distinct neural mechanisms and it has remained unclear whether and how they interact with each other. In this study we addressed this issue with a novel virtual penalty shoot task that required simultaneous choice and motor learning by humans. We observed that choice learning and motor learning can proceed in parallel while there are substantial interactions between the two learning processes. Choice learning is predominantly driven by rewards but is also modulated by motor execution errors. Motor learning is predominantly driven by execution errors but the sensitivity to errors (i.e motor gain) is modulated by reward. These results provide an insight into action learning in the real world and highlight the need for future studies to examine choice learning and motor learning together, as interacting components of a single learning architecture.