Speaker: Dr Ashesh Dhawale, Asst. Prof., Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
Venue: L016, Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), Science Park, Amsterdam
Time: 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Title: The role of variability in motor learning
Abstract: Trial-to-trial variability in movements is often treated as unwanted noise arising from stochasticity in the operation of the neuromuscular system. Yet, recent evidence suggests that variability may drive exploration of motor space required for motor learning. However, we know little about the strategies used by the brain to generate, regulate and learn from variability. This is because discerning such strategies on the scale of individual trials requires large behavioural datasets.
In my talk, I will describe how we used high-throughput, automated training of rats on a continuous motor learning task in conjunction with computational modeling to uncover the structure of trial-to-trial variability, its regulation by performance, and its contribution to motor learning.
