Motor Exploration and Motor Learning During Child Development

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project will examine how children's ability to explore different movement patterns affects their ability to learn new motor skills. This project will enhance basic understanding of the differences between how children and adults learn to acquire such motor skills, which will provide theoretical insight into how the brain organizes movement and learning. The knowledge gained from this project has important implications for how learning and rehabilitation paradigms should be customized for children, especially in cases of movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. The project will also include an outreach component to involve middle and high-school students in STEM research. Because children are not simply smaller versions of adults, rehabilitation programs must be tailored in age-specific manners; by adopting a developmental focus, this research will facilitate the creation of such child-appropriate programs. Although there is evidence that children and adults differ in terms of motor learning, the mechanisms underlying these differences are poorly understood. The investigators hypothesize that motor exploration--the ability to generate different movement patterns--may play a critical role in this difference. This project examines the role of motor exploration in motor learning with a specific focus on how this relation changes with development during childhood. Specifically, the investigators attempt to answer three research questions: (1) how does motor exploration during learning change with development, (2) how does age mediate the relation between motor exploration and learning, and (3) can practice schedules that modify motor exploration be used to facilitate learning? The investigators use a novel paradigm called a body-machine interface to minimize typical confounds (such as body size and strength) to compare motor learning across different age groups. This research will contribute to a more elaborated understanding of how children acquire complex motor skills during development.