Title:
A model of fronto-striatal and parieto-cerebellar network dynamics in visuo-motor learning
Speaker:
José Luis Contreras-Vidal
Subject:
mathematical biosciences
Area:
Medicine
Type of school:
university
School name:
ohio state university
Country:
United States
Course language:
English
Course media:
Video
Course duration:
Contributor:
pbp
Comments:
Author: José Luis Contreras-Vidal, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland
Title: A model of fronto-striatal and parieto-cerebellar network dynamics in visuo-motor learning
Presentation Materials: PDF
Streaming Video: Real Media
In planning visually guided movements, such as pointing and reaching to visual targets, the brain transforms target information in visuo-spatial coordinates into motor commands. The internal model of this visuo-motor transformation needs to be modified in response to altered environments, such as a screen cursor rotation (Teulings et al., 2002; Kagerer et al., 1997). Under such distortions, one must practice to acquire an internal model of the novel environment, which would represent the altered relationship between the cursor movement and the hand/mouse movement. Prior studies suggest that the process of adaptation to a rotational bias depends on the time course of the distortion (Kagerer et al., 1997; Robertson and Miall, 1999). Lesion studies in non-human primates and in clinical populations (cerebellar syndrome and Parkinson's disease) indicate a differential involvement of brain structures in adaptation to gradual as compared to sudden visuo-motor distortions. In this talk, I will describe a neural network model of fronto-parietal, fronto-striatal, and parieto-cerebellar networks thought to be engaged in learning a new internal model of a kinematic distortion. These networks can be differentiated in terms of their learning rules (unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and supervised learning), the error signals (inferior olive for the cerebellar network, dopamine for the basal ganglia system), the spatio-temporal resolution (high-resolution for cerebellar network, poor resolution for basal ganglia), and the timing of recruitment of these structures during learning. This proposal is consistent with the view that the basal ganglia may be involved in the selection of appropriate movements and/or cognitive