Visuo-Motor Relationships: Plasticity and Development

Demonstration: plasticity in relationship between vision and movements

Ability to adapt to new relationships requires cerebellum

Why do we need to retain plasticity for new visuo-motor relationships? 1. Need to adjust to changes in body size during development. 2. Need to adjust to damage/aging. 3. Need to adjust to environmental changes eg ice, loads etc. 4. Need to learn arbitrary mappings for tool use etc. 5. Need to acquire new motor skills. 6. Visuo-motor coordination is a computationally difficult problem for the brain. Need flexibility to correct errors.

Straight hand paths People move their hand in a straight path even when they can’t see their hand motion, and so can only rely on proprioception.

Straight hand paths Paths are straight even when the arm is loaded. Even when the arm is perturbed by forces acting on it, people learn to make straight hand paths.

Grasping Reaching and grasping actions require close coordination, but depend on different kinds of visual information... Reaching: egocentric (where is object relative to me) Transform visual information about object location into movement direction. Grasping: object-centred Transform visual information about object properties (shape and size) into commands for grasping movements.

Development of reaching Within first 2 weeks, already directing arm towards objects. Some crude control of reach direction. Improves by the 5th month; consistently touch targets. Won’t reach for targets beyond arm’s length. Catching and anticipating target motion at 6 months. Distance accuracy develops more slowly, improving by 7 months.

Increased use of visual feedback between 5 and 11 months

Early reach movements Initially use the trunk & shoulder (proximal joints) to reach for objects; use elbow less frequently. When babies do make large movements, can’t control inter-segmental dynamics. So hand oscillates.

Development of reaching Between 5 and 9 months see many changes to kinematics: 1) Straightening of the hand path 2) Reduced number of “submovements” 3) Reduced movement time

Development of reaching Joint kinematics changes as well: coordination among joints

Development of grasping Newborns have grasp reflex (clasp object brought against the palm) – disappears by 6 months. 5 months: hand does not orient to object until contact 9 months: hand orients prior to contact (note visual information about orientation is available at 2 months). Pre-shape for object size. Still adjusting grip force by 7-8 years (grip force larger for larger objects). Use palmar grasp until about 12 months – then use fingers to grasp. Corresponds to rapid increase in the rate of myelination of corticospinal tracts at 12 months – responsible for distal musculature.

Reach and grasp development Birth Increased myelination of corticospinal tracts Continued refinement Direct hand to object reach onset fine tune reach Coordinated torque patterns/ joint patterns Integrate sensory- motor signals Pincer grasp months years Calibrating visual information to form grip

Held & Hein Role of Experience in Development of Visuo-motor coordination Both kittens get visual experience and motor experience 1.Visual experience correlated with motor commands/proprioceptive feedback/vision of limbs 2.Gets both, but uncorrelated. Kitten 2 -abnormal visuo- motor coordination. 1 2

Adaptation to different relation between visual and movement. George Stratton –Wore inverting lens for 8 days –Believed that we learn visual directions by associating visual experiences with other forms of sensory feedback (e.g. proprioceptive). –Alternatively… Adaptation results from learning correlation betweeen vision and actively generated motor commands (Held, 1965).

Mike May, and Molyneux’s Question Role of Experience in Development of Vision

Neural control of Grasping

Both vPM and AIP neurons fire for specific hand actions/objects. For example, this neuron prefers a precision grip. Precision grip Power grip

Neural control of Grasping vPM neurons fire for grasping movements made in the light and dark. In contrast, AIP neurons fire far less when moving in the dark, and in general, AIP has more visual neurons than vPM.

Neural control of Grasping

Neurons in the vPM also fires when perceiving, as well, as producing grasping movements!