Seminar Details
2018-02-06 (14:00) : Robust and adaptive control of reaching movements in human
At Euler building (room A.002)
Organized by Mathematical Engineering
Speaker :
Crevecoeur, Frédéric
Abstract :
Neural plasticity and flexible representations of reach dynamics allows humans and animals to adapt to a wide range of disturbances applied to the limb such as robotic force fields, Coriolis force fields, and even changes in gravity. This ability has been almost exclusively described across trials, characterizing the gradual improvement of movement performances through learning curves. However, it remains unknown how we control movements in the presence of unexpected disturbances. Two candidate hypotheses are motivated by engineering techniques: robust (Hoo) and adaptive control can be used to mitigate the impact of model errors. Our experimental results show that healthy humans may implement these two strategies. We found that the presence of uncertainty in reach dynamics evoked changes in control consistent with a robust control model. Furthermore, within movement feedback corrections for unexpected dynamics evoked online adaptation of the ongoing motor command. These two components of movement execution may provide a powerful framework for linking control over time with learning over trials.