Early life experience sets hard limits on motor learning as evidenced from artificial arm use

Author:

Maimon-Mor Roni O12ORCID,Schone Hunter R23,Henderson Slater David4,Faisal A Aldo5ORCID,Makin Tamar R2ORCID

Affiliation:

1. WIN Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford

2. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

3. Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, NIMH, National Institutes of Health

4. Oxford Centre for Enablement, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre

5. Departments of Bioengineering and of Computing, Imperial College London

Abstract

The study of artificial arms provides a unique opportunity to address long-standing questions on sensorimotor plasticity and development. Learning to use an artificial arm arguably depends on fundamental building blocks of body representation and would therefore be impacted by early life experience. We tested artificial arm motor-control in two adult populations with upper-limb deficiencies: a congenital group—individuals who were born with a partial arm, and an acquired group—who lost their arm following amputation in adulthood. Brain plasticity research teaches us that the earlier we train to acquire new skills (or use a new technology) the better we benefit from this practice as adults. Instead, we found that although the congenital group started using an artificial arm as toddlers, they produced increased error noise and directional errors when reaching to visual targets, relative to the acquired group who performed similarly to controls. However, the earlier an individual with a congenital limb difference was fitted with an artificial arm, the better their motor control was. Since we found no group differences when reaching without visual feedback, we suggest that the ability to perform efficient visual-based corrective movements is highly dependent on either biological or artificial arm experience at a very young age. Subsequently, opportunities for sensorimotor plasticity become more limited.

Funder

H2020 European Research Council

Wellcome Trust

Clarendon Fund

University College, Oxford

UK Research and Innovation

Publisher

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

Subject

General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience

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