Kinematics and Dynamics

Behaving adaptively under novel and changing circumstances requires learning. Motor learning involves changing the neuronal control system to compensate for novel perturbations in the body and in the environment and to perform new skilled movements. To achieve a goal, the control system must map sensory input into motor output through kinematic and dynamic transformations. Focusing on reaching, recent experiments have investigated the changes in the kinematic and dynamic transformations during the compensation of perturbations and the acquisition of skills involving altered visual feedback and forces. The neural correlates of these changes are also beginning to be uncovered.