Introduction
Complex real-world tasks have nested redundancy
Using virtual environments to overcome the challenges of studying complex skills
Attributes of virtual environments | Examples |
---|---|
Detailed measurements of execution (or process) beyond course-grained descriptive outcome measures of motor performance. | Precise tracking of human kinematics and interaction with virtual objects. Ability to combine measurement of task execution variables and result variables. |
Ability to mathematically model motor tasks and vary relevant task parameters | Mathematical modeling of task physics makes explicit the variables that define task execution and result. Parameters that can be manipulated include those that reduce or augment task error. Such task constraints can be systematically varied to identify their effect on performance. |
Precise simulation of the physics of virtual objects limits uncontrolled aspects that may confound results. | Modeling in a VE confines the task to the measured variables, excluding, for example, environmental noise such as drag or lateral forces influencing the trajectory of a thrown ball. |
Ability to examine a range of perceptual conditions with robust experimental control. | VEs enable precise manipulation of experimental parameters, including amount of haptic, haptic, visual or auditory feedback and task difficulty (e.g. changing the size or position of a target), to test hypotheses about performance strategies. |
Methods
Focus | Title | Authors | Year | Population |
---|---|---|---|---|
Understanding variability in complex skill learning
| Acquisition of novel and complex motor skills: stable solutions where intrinsic noise matters less. | Sternad D, Huber ME, Kuznetsov N | 2014 | Unimpaired |
From theoretical analysis to clinical assessment and intervention: Three interactive motor skills in a virtual environment. | Sternad D | 2015 | Unimpaired, impaired | |
Exploiting the geometry of the solution space to reduce sensitivity to neuromotor noise. | Zhang Z, Guo D, Huber ME, Park SW, Sternad D | 2018 | Unimpaired | |
State space analysis of timing: exploiting task redundancy to reduce sensitivity to timing. | Cohen RG, Sternad D | 2012 | ||
Bouncing a ball: tuning into dynamic stability. | Sternad D, Duarte M, Katsumata H, Schaal S | 2001 | ||
One-handed juggling: A dynamical approach to a rhythmic task | Schaal S, Atkeson CG, Sternad D | 1996 | ||
Passive stability and active control in a rhythmic task. | Wei K, Dijkstra TM, Sternad D | 2007 | ||
Human control of interactions with objects: Variability, stability and predictability. | Sternad D | 2017 | ||
The influence of movement initiation deficits on the quantification of retention in Parkinson’s disease. | Pendt LK, Maurer H, Müller H. | 2012 | Impaired | |
Healthy and dystonic children compensate for changes in motor variability. | Chu VW, Sternad D, Sanger TD | 2013 | Unimpaired, impaired | |
Inducing variability to enhance learning
| Motor learning through induced variability at the task goal and execution redundancy levels. | Ranganathan R, Newell KM | 2010 | Unimpaired |
Emergent flexibility in motor learning. | Ranganathan R, Newell KM | 2010 | ||
Changing up the routine: intervention-induced variability in motor learning. | Ranganathan R, Newell KM | 2013 | ||
High variability impairs motor learning regardless of whether it affects task performance. | Cardis M, Casadio M, Ranganathan R. | 2018 | ||
Directionality in distribution and temporal structure of variability in skill acquisition. | Abe MO, Sternad D | 2013 | ||
Learning a throwing task is associated with differential changes in the use of motor abundance. | Yang JF, Scholz JP | 2013 | ||
Amplification of visual errors to stimulate learning
| Using noise to shape motor learning. | Thorp EB, Kording KP, Mussa-Ivaldi FA | 2017 | |
Neuromotor noise is malleable by amplifying perceived errors. | Hasson CJ, Zhang Z, Abe MO, Sternad D | 2016 | ||
Persistence of reduced neuromotor noise in long-term motor skill learning. | Huber ME, Kuznetsov N, Sternad D | 2016 | ||
Visual error augmentation enhances learning in three dimensions. | Sharp I, Huang F, Patton J | 2011 | ||
Visuomotor discordance during visually-guided hand movement in virtual reality modulates sensorimotor cortical activity in healthy and hemiparetic subjects. | Tunik E, Saleh S, Adamovich SV | 2013 | Unimpaired, impaired | |
Visuomotor gain distortion alters online motor performance and enhances primary motor cortex excitability in patients with stroke. | Bagce HF, Saleh S, Adamovich SV, Tunik E | 2012 | ||
Visuomotor discordance in virtual reality: effects on online motor control. | Bagce HF, Saleh S, Adamovich SV, Tunik E | 2011 | ||
Effect of error augmentation on brain activation and motor learning of a complex locomotor task. | Marchal-Crespo L, Michels L, Jaeger L, Lopez-Oloriz J, Riener R | 2017 | Unimpaired | |
Haptic error modulation outperforms visual error amplification when learning a modified gait pattern. | Marchal-Crespo L, Tsangaridis P, Obwegeser D, Maggioni S, Riener R | 2019 | ||
Manipulation of task physics for implicit guidance
| Implicit guidance to stable performance in a rhythmic perceptual-motor skill. | Huber ME, Sternad D | 2015 | |
Inconclusive evidence of skill transfer from virtual to real environments
| Functional performance comparison between real and virtual tasks in older adults: A cross-sectional study. | Bezerra IMP, Crocetta TB, Massetti T, Silva TDD, Guarnieri R, Meira CM, et al. | 2018 | |
Transfer of motor learning from virtual to natural environments in individuals with cerebral palsy. | de Mello Monteiro CB, Massetti T, da Silva TD, van der Kamp J, de Abreu LC, Leone C, et al. | 2014 | Impaired | |
Motor learning from virtual reality to natural environments in individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. | Quadrado VH, Silva TDD, Favero FM, Tonks J, Massetti T, Monteiro CBM. | 2017 | ||
Achievement of virtual and real objects using a short-term motor learning protocol in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A crossover randomized controlled trial. | Massetti T, Favero FM, Menezes LDC, Alvarez MPB, Crocetta TB, Guarnieri R, et al. | 2018 | ||
Transfer of a skilled motor learning task between virtual and conventional environments. | Anglin J, Saldana D, Schmiesing A, Liew S. | 2017 | Unimpaired | |
Is children’s motor learning of a postural reaching task enhanced by practice in a virtual environment? | Levac DE, Jovanovic B. | 2017 | ||
Differences in movement kinematics between virtual and real environments
| Upper limb kinematics in stroke and healthy controls using target-to-target task in virtual reality. | Hussain N, Alt Murphy M, Sunnerhagen KS | 2018 | Unimpaired, impaired |
Kinematics of reaching movements in a 2-D virtual environment in adults with and without stroke. | Liebermann DG, Berman S, Weiss PLT, Levin MF | 2012 | ||
Effects of real-world versus virtual environments on joint excursions in full-body reaching tasks. | Thomas JS, France CR, Leitkam ST, Applegate ME, Pidcoe PE, Walkowski S. | 2016 | Unimpaired | |
Viewing medium affects arm motor performance in 3D virtual environments. | Subramanian SK, Levin MF. | 2011 | ||
Validation of reaching in a virtual environment in typically developing children and children with mild unilateral cerebral palsy. | Robert MT, Levin MF | 2018 | Unimpaired, impaired | |
Comparison of grasping movements made by healthy subjects in a 3-dimensional immersive virtual versus physical environment. | Magdalon EC, Michaelsen SM, Quevedo AA, Levin MF | 2011 | Unimpaired | |
Planning and adjustments for the control of reach extent in a virtual environment. | Stewart JC, Gordon J, Winstein CJ. | 2013 | ||
Quality of grasping and the role of haptics in a 3-D immersive virtual reality environment in individuals with stroke. | Levin MF, Magdalon EC, Michaelsen SM, Quevedo AAF | 2015 | Unimpaired, impaired | |
Differences in learning mechanisms in virtual and real environments
| Visuomotor adaptation in head-mounted virtual reality versus conventional training. | Anglin JM, Sugiyama T, Liew SL | 2017 | Unimpaired |
Enhancing task transfer through VE fidelity and dimensionality
| Goal-related feedback guides motor exploration and redundancy resolution in human motor skill acquisition. | Rohde M, Narioka K, Steil JJ, Klein LK, Ernst MO | 2019 | |
Learning redundant motor tasks with and without overlapping dimensions: facilitation and interference effects. | Ranganathan R, Wieser J, Mosier KM, Mussa-Ivaldi FA, Scheidt RA | 2014 |