scholarly journals Gaze Behaviour During Sensorimotor Adaptation Parcellates the Explicit and Implicit Contributions to Learning

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk J. de Brouwer ◽  
Mohammed Albaghdadi ◽  
J. Randall Flanagan ◽  
Jason P. Gallivan
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Fast Learning ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Reach Planning ◽  
Natural Component

AbstractSuccessful motor performance relies on our ability to adapt to changes in the environment by learning novel mappings between motor commands and sensory outcomes. Such adaptation is thought to involve two distinct mechanisms: An implicit, error-based component linked to slow learning and an explicit, strategic component linked to fast learning and savings (i.e., faster relearning). Because behaviour, at any given moment, is the resultant combination of these two processes, it has remained a challenge to parcellate their relative contributions to performance. The explicit component to visuomotor rotation (VMR) learning has recently been measured by having participants verbally report their aiming strategy used to counteract the rotation. However, this procedure has been shown to magnify the explicit component. Here we tested whether task-specific eye movements, a natural component of reach planning—but poorly studied in motor learning tasks—can provide a direct read-out of the state of the explicit component during VMR learning. We show, by placing targets on a visible ring and including a delay between target presentation and reach onset, that individual differences in gaze patterns during sensorimotor adaptation are linked to participants’ rates of learning and can predict the expression of savings. Specifically, we find that participants who, during reach planning, naturally fixate an aimpoint, rotated away from the target location, show faster initial adaptation and readaptation 24 hrs. later. Our results demonstrate that gaze behaviour can not only uniquely identify individuals who implement cognitive strategies during learning, but also how their implementation is linked to differences in learning.

scholarly journals Using gaze behavior to parcellate the explicit and implicit contributions to visuomotor learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 1602-1615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk J. de Brouwer ◽  
Mohammed Albaghdadi ◽  
J. Randall Flanagan ◽  
Jason P. Gallivan
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Fast Learning ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Reach Planning

Successful motor performance relies on our ability to adapt to changes in the environment by learning novel mappings between motor commands and sensory outcomes. Such adaptation is thought to involve two distinct mechanisms: an implicit, error-based component linked to slow learning and an explicit, strategic component linked to fast learning and savings (i.e., faster relearning). Because behavior, at any given moment, is the resultant combination of these two processes, it has remained a challenge to parcellate their relative contributions to performance. The explicit component to visuomotor rotation (VMR) learning has recently been measured by having participants verbally report their aiming strategy used to counteract the rotation. However, this procedure has been shown to magnify the explicit component. Here we tested whether task-specific eye movements, a natural component of reach planning, but poorly studied in motor learning tasks, can provide a direct readout of the state of the explicit component during VMR learning. We show, by placing targets on a visible ring and including a delay between target presentation and reach onset, that individual differences in gaze patterns during sensorimotor learning are linked to participants’ rates of learning and their expression of savings. Specifically, we find that participants who, during reach planning, naturally fixate an aimpoint rotated away from the target location, show faster initial adaptation and readaptation 24 h later. Our results demonstrate that gaze behavior cannot only uniquely identify individuals who implement cognitive strategies during learning but also how their implementation is linked to differences in learning. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although it is increasingly well appreciated that sensorimotor learning is driven by two separate components, an error-based process and a strategic process, it has remained a challenge to identify their relative contributions to performance. Here we demonstrate that task-specific eye movements provide a direct read-out of explicit strategies during sensorimotor learning in the presence of visual landmarks. We further show that individual differences in gaze behavior are linked to learning rate and savings.

scholarly journals Dynamic scan paths investigations under manual and highly automated driving

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Navarro ◽  
Otto Lappi ◽  
François Osiurak ◽  
Emma Hernout ◽  
Catherine Gabaude ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Human Locomotion ◽  
Visual Scanning ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Scan Paths ◽  
Highly Automated Driving

AbstractActive visual scanning of the scene is a key task-element in all forms of human locomotion. In the field of driving, steering (lateral control) and speed adjustments (longitudinal control) models are largely based on drivers’ visual inputs. Despite knowledge gained on gaze behaviour behind the wheel, our understanding of the sequential aspects of the gaze strategies that actively sample that input remains restricted. Here, we apply scan path analysis to investigate sequences of visual scanning in manual and highly automated simulated driving. Five stereotypical visual sequences were identified under manual driving: forward polling (i.e. far road explorations), guidance, backwards polling (i.e. near road explorations), scenery and speed monitoring scan paths. Previously undocumented backwards polling scan paths were the most frequent. Under highly automated driving backwards polling scan paths relative frequency decreased, guidance scan paths relative frequency increased, and automation supervision specific scan paths appeared. The results shed new light on the gaze patterns engaged while driving. Methodological and empirical questions for future studies are discussed.

Impaired Sensorimotor Adaption in Schizophrenia in Comparison to Age-Matched and Elderly Controls

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Claudia Cornelis ◽  
Livia J. De Picker ◽  
Violette Coppens ◽  
Anne Morsel ◽  
Maarten Timmers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Reversal Task ◽  
Elderly Individuals ◽  
Gain Adaptation ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Adaptation Task

<b><i>Background:</i></b> The “cognitive dysmetria hypothesis” of schizophrenia proposes a disrupted communication between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, resulting in sensorimotor and cognitive symptoms. Sensorimotor adaptation relies strongly on the function of the cerebellum. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> This study investigated whether sensorimotor adaptation is reduced in schizophrenia compared with age-matched and elderly healthy controls. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Twenty-nine stably treated patients with schizophrenia, 30 age-matched, and 30 elderly controls were tested in three motor adaptation tasks in which visual movement feedback was unexpectedly altered. In the “rotation adaptation task” the perturbation consisted of a rotation (30° clockwise), in the “gain adaptation task” the extent of the movement feedback was reduced (by a factor of 0.7) and in the “vertical reversal task,” up- and downward pen movements were reversed by 180°. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Patients with schizophrenia adapted to the perturbations, but their movement times and errors were substantially larger than controls. Unexpectedly, the magnitude of adaptation was significantly smaller in schizophrenia than elderly participants. The impairment already occurred during the first adaptation trials, pointing to a decline in explicit strategy use. Additionally, post-adaptation aftereffects provided strong evidence for impaired implicit adaptation learning. Both negative and positive schizophrenia symptom severities were correlated with indices of the amount of adaptation and its aftereffects. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Both explicit and implicit components of sensorimotor adaptation learning were reduced in patients with schizophrenia, adding to the evidence for a role of the cerebellum in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Elderly individuals outperformed schizophrenia patients in the adaptation learning tasks.

scholarly journals Transfer of metacognitive skills in self-regulated learning: an experimental training study

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-477
Author(s):  
Corinna Schuster ◽  
Ferdinand Stebner ◽  
Detlev Leutner ◽  
Joachim Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Cognitive Strategy ◽  
Training Transfer ◽  
Metacognitive Skills ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Training Conditions ◽  
Self Regulated Learning ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Regulated Learning

Abstract Training interventions for self-regulated learning foster the use of strategies and skills as well as their transfer to new learning tasks. Because cognitive strategies or motivation regulation strategies are task-specific, their transfer is limited. In contrast, metacognitive skills are task-general and transferable to a wide variety of learning tasks. Questions arise, therefore, as to whether students transfer metacognitive skills spontaneously and how to support metacognitive skill transfer. Previous research shows that hybrid training, which addresses both metacognitive skills and cognitive strategies, supports near transfer. However, it is not clear whether hybrid training also fosters far transfer of metacognitive skills. In investigating this research question, 233 fifth-grade students were randomly assigned to six different conditions: two hybrid-training conditions (metacognitive skills and one out of two cognitive strategies), two non-hybrid training conditions (“only” one out of two cognitive strategies), and two control training conditions (neither metacognitive skills nor cognitive strategies). After 15 weeks of training, transfer of metacognitive skills to learning tasks similar to training tasks (near transfer) was tested. In the following 15 weeks, all students received a second, non-hybrid training involving a new cognitive strategy. Far transfer of metacognitive skills to the new cognitive strategy was tested afterward. The results show that hybrid training, compared to non-hybrid and control training, improved both students’ near and far transfer of metacognitive skills. Moreover, cognitive strategy use increased in at least one of the hybrid-training conditions. However, since the level of metacognitive skills use remained low, further means to support transfer are discussed.

scholarly journals Dopamine depletion affects vocal acoustics and disrupts sensorimotor adaptation in songbirds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun Saravanan ◽  
Lukas A Hoffmann ◽  
Amanda L Jacob ◽  
Gordon J Berman ◽  
Samuel J Sober
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Feedback Signal ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
External Reinforcement ◽  
Corrective Response

AbstractDopamine is hypothesized to convey important error information in reinforcement learning tasks with explicit appetitive or aversive cues. However, during motor skill learning the only available feedback signal is typically an animal’s evaluation of the sensory feedback arising from its own behavior, rather than any external reward or punishment. It has previously been shown that intact dopaminergic signaling from the ventral tegmental area – substantia nigra compacta complex (VTA/SNc) is necessary for vocal learning in response to an external aversive auditory cue in songbirds. However, the role of dopamine in learning in the absence of explicit external cues is still unclear. Here we used male Bengalese finches (Lonchura striatavar.domestica) to test the hypothesis that dopamine signaling is necessary for self-evaluation driven sensorimotor learning. We combined 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of dopaminergic terminals within Area X, a songbird basal ganglia nucleus critical for vocal learning, with a headphones learning paradigm that shifted the birds’ auditory feedback and compared their learning to birds without lesions. We found that 6-OHDA lesions affected song behavior in two ways. First, over a period of days lesioned birds systemically lowered their pitch regardless of the presence or absence of auditory errors. Second, 6-OHDA lesioned birds also displayed severe deficits in sensorimotor learning as measured by their adaptive change in pitch in response to the pitch-shifted auditory error. Our results suggest roles for dopamine both in motor production and in auditory error processing during vocal learning.Significance StatementDopamine has been hypothesized to convey a reward prediction error signal in learning tasks involving external reinforcement. However the role dopamine plays in tasks involving self-guided error correction in the absence of external reinforcement is much less clear. To address this question, we studied the role of dopamine in sensorimotor adaptation using male Bengalese finches, which spontaneously produce a complex motor behavior (song) and are capable of modulating their behavioral output in response to induced auditory errors. Our results reveal that in addition to conveying errors in motor performance, dopamine may also have a role in modulating effort and in choosing a corrective response to the auditory error.

scholarly journals Considerations for the study of individual differences in gaze control during expert visual anticipation: an exploratory study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Ramsey ◽  
Chris Button ◽  
Keith Davids ◽  
Guillaume Hacques ◽  
Ludovic Seifert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Viewing Time ◽  
Gaze Control ◽  
Quiet Eye ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Search Patterns ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Main Observation ◽  
Primary Focus

Recent perspectives for the study of perceptual-motor expertise have highlighted the importance for considering variability in gaze behaviour. The present paper explores the prevalence of variability in gaze behaviour in an anticipation task through examining goalkeepers gaze behaviours when saving soccer penalty kicks, with a primary focus on offering new considerations for the study of variability in gaze behaviour. A subset of data from five goalkeepers in the previously published article of Dicks et al. ((2010) Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(3), 706–720) were reanalysed, with a focus on ten successful penalty saves for each goalkeeper. As the aim was to conduct exploratory analyses of individual differences in goalkeeping performance, data were not averaged across participants and instead intra- and inter-individual differences are described using descriptive statistics. The main observation was that variation in the goalkeepers’ gaze behaviours existed and were evident both between and within individuals, specifically with regards to quiet eye duration but also for percentage viewing time and visual search patterns. However, QE location appeared to represent the only invariant gaze measure with the location being on the ball for the majority of trials. The current exploratory analysis suggested that experienced goalkeepers did not converge on the same gaze patterns during successful anticipation performance. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to extant gaze behaviour literature before considering implications for future research.

scholarly journals Students in sight: Using mobile eye-tracking to investigate mathematics teachers’ gaze behaviour during task instruction-giving

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 92-115
Author(s):  
Olli Maatta ◽  
Nora McIntyre ◽  
Jussi Palomäki ◽  
Markku S. Hannula ◽  
Patrik Scheinin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Mathematical Problem ◽  
Task Instruction ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Geometry Problem ◽  
Verbal Data ◽  
Mobile Eye Tracking

Abstract Mobile eye-tracking research has provided evidence both on teachers' visual attention in relation to their intentions and on teachers’ student-centred gaze patterns. However, the importance of a teacher’s eye-movements when giving instructions is unexplored. In this study we used mobile eye-tracking to investigate six teachers’ gaze patterns when they are giving task instructions for a geometry problem in four different phases of a mathematical problem-solving lesson. We analysed the teachers’ eye-tracking data, their verbal data, and classroom video recordings. Our paper brings forth a novel interpretative lens for teacher’s pedagogical intentions communicated by gaze during teacher-led moments such as when introducing new tasks, reorganizing the social structures of students for collaboration, and lesson wrap-ups. A change in the students’ task changes teachers’ gaze patterns, which may indicate a change in teacher’s pedagogical intention. We found that teachers gazed at students throughout the lesson, whereas teachers’ focus was at task-related targets during collaborative instruction-giving more than during the introductory and reflective task instructions. Hence, we suggest two previously not detected gaze types: contextualizing gaze for task readiness and collaborative gaze for task focus to contribute to the present discussion on teacher gaze

scholarly journals Reach-relevant somatosensory signals modulate tactile suppression

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 2262-2268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Gertz ◽  
Dimitris Voudouris ◽  
Katja Fiehler
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
The Body ◽  
Detection Thresholds ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Somatosensory Information ◽  
The Right ◽  
Computational Resources ◽  
Reach Planning ◽  
Limb Dominance

Tactile stimuli on moving limbs are typically attenuated during reach planning and execution. This phenomenon has been related to internal forward models that predict the sensory consequences of a movement. Tactile suppression is considered to occur due to a match between the actual and predicted sensory consequences of a movement, which might free capacities to process novel or task-relevant sensory signals. Here, we examined whether and how tactile suppression depends on the relevance of somatosensory information for reaching. Participants reached with their left or right index finger to the unseen index finger of their other hand (body target) or an unseen pad on a screen (external target). In the body target condition, somatosensory signals from the static hand were available for localizing the reach target. Vibrotactile stimuli were presented on the moving index finger before or during reaching or in a separate no-movement baseline block, and participants indicated whether they detected a stimulus. As expected, detection thresholds before or during reaching were higher compared with baseline. Tactile suppression was also stronger for reaches to body targets than external targets, as reflected by higher detection thresholds and lower precision of detectability. Moreover, detection thresholds were higher when reaching with the left than with the right hand. Our results suggest that tactile suppression is modulated by position signals from the target limb that are required to reach successfully to the own body. Moreover, limb dominance seems to affect tactile suppression, presumably due to disparate uncertainty of feedback signals from the moving limb. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Tactile suppression on a moving limb has been suggested to release computational resources for processing other relevant sensory events. In the current study, we show that tactile sensitivity on the moving limb decreases more when reaching to body targets than external targets. This indicates that tactile perception can be modulated by allocating processing capacities to movement-relevant somatosensory information at the target location. Our results contribute to understanding tactile processing and predictive mechanisms in the brain.

scholarly journals Implicit visuomotor adaptation remains limited after several days of training

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Wilterson ◽  
Jordan A. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skill ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Mirror Reversal ◽  
Adaptation Processes

AbstractLearning in sensorimotor adaptation tasks has been historically viewed as solely an implicit learning phenomenon. However, recent findings suggest that implicit adaptation is heavily constrained, calling into question its utility in motor learning, and the theoretical framework of sensorimotor adaptation paradigms. These inferences have been based mainly on results from single bouts of training. Thus, it is possible that implicit adaptation processes supersede explicit compensation strategies, such as explicitly re-aiming their intended movement direction, over repeated practice sessions. We tested this by dissociating the contributions of explicit re-aiming strategies and implicit adaptation over five consecutive days of training. Despite a substantially longer duration of training, implicit adaptation still plateaued at a value far short of complete learning. We sought to determine if these constraints on implicit adaptation extend to another sensorimotor task, mirror reversal. As has been observed in previous studies, implicit adaptation was inappropriate for mirror reversal and was gradually suppressed over training. These findings are consistent with a handful of recent studies suggesting that implicit adaptation processes, as studied in sensorimotor adaptation paradigms, may only make subtle recalibrations of an existing skill and cannot contribute to motor skill learning de novo.Significance StatementIn this set of studies, we find that implicit adaptation cannot fully account for learning in adaptation tasks, such as the visuomotor rotation and mirror reversal tasks, even following several days of training. In fact, implicit adaptation can be counterproductive to learning. These findings question the utility of implicit adaptation processes to motor skill learning more broadly.

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