Motor Learning

Abstract

Human movement behavior is constantly evolving. Improvements in materials and technology along with developing metacognition leading younger generation to participate in more challenging sporting behaviors, while advancements in healthcare increase the lifespan and influence the movement behavior of the older generation. Similarly, improvements in prosthetics and neuroscience enabled paraplegic patients regenerate reaching and grasping movements via learning to fire neurons in motor cortex. These varieties of movement behaviors in sports, elderly and patients show how comprehensive the motor learning field is. This chapter starts with a framework of learning and memory, with examples from the motor system. There is a presentation of behavioral and physiological approach in motor learning and motor memory, the stages of motor learning, and the neural correlates of motor learning. After this theoretical part, there is a summary of the recent literature on motor adaptation, and motor learning during life-span development, in expertise and in rehabilitation. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.