Motor adaptation

It is suggested that the nervous system learns to predict and cancel effects of a novel environment, returning movements to near baseline (unperturbed) conditions.

Animals undergoing split-belt adaptation adjust their interlimb coordination pattern to regain overall gait symmetry.

[3][4][5] As demonstrated in the chart, when the environmental forces are removed, the subject reserves, for a limited time, the adaptive movement pattern (stage 4).

This observation suggests that in programming the motor output to the muscles of the arm, the CNS uses an internal model (Wolpert et al., 1995b) to predict the mechanical dynamics of the task.

Using optogenetics the study, done by Dr. Mackenzie Mathis at Harvard University, using mice could also show that somatosensory cortex is involved in updating the internal model.

Schematic of motor adaptation. Depicted to the left is a cartoon representation of a subject walking on a split-belt treadmill during which the left leg is driven to walk slower than the right. Shown to the right is the process of split-belt adaptation which involves a disruption and then recovery of step length symmetry at the onset and termination (bottom right) of the change in speed across the left and right treadmill belts (top right)
Effects and After-effects
Motor Adaptation