CogNeuro Consolider Series: Rob van Beers (University of Utrecht)

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Sala de Graus, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona

Rob van Beers (University of Utrecht)

Motor learning in the presence of sensory and motor noise

Abstract:

When we play a game of darts and miss the desired section of the board, we try to do better in the next throw. Making such a correction requires perception of the error just made and movement control of the next throw. In this presentation I will show how our brain makes corrections to a movement plan, driven by perceived movement errors. At first sight, this may seem a simple process, but it actually is a complicated task as a result of noise in the sensory and motor signals. I used time series analysis techniques to identify the strategy used by our brain to correct for movement errors. This strategy is near optimal given the properties of noise in the sensory and motor systems.