Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Motor variability is not noise, but grist for the learning mill

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Neuroscience

View current issue Submit your manuscript

A study demonstrates that variability in how people perform a movement can predict the rate of motor learning on an individual basis. This suggests that motor 'noise' is a central component of motor learning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1: Motor variability.

Debbie Maizels

References

  1. Wu, H., Miyamoto, Y., Gonzales-Castro, L.N., Olveczky, B.P. & Smith, M.A. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 312–321 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Thoroughman, K.A. & Shadmehr, R. Nature 407, 742–747 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Smith, M.A., Ghazizadeh, A. & Shadmehr, R. PLoS Biol. 4, e179 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kording, K.P., Tenenbaum, J.B. & Shadmehr, R. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 779–786 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schultz, W., Dayan, P. & Montague, P.R. Science 275, 1593–1599 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Tseng, Y.W., Diedrichsen, J., Krakauer, J.W., Shadmehr, R. & Bastian, A.J. J. Neurophysiol. 98, 54–62 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Smith, M.A. & Shadmehr, R. J. Neurophysiol. 93, 2809–2821 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Shmuelof, L., Krakauer, J.W. & Mazzoni, P. J. Neurophysiol. 108, 578–594 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. David J. Herzfeld and Reza Shadmehr are in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Laboratory for Computational Motor Control, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,

    David J Herzfeld & Reza Shadmehr

Authors
  1. David J Herzfeld
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Reza Shadmehr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reza Shadmehr.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Herzfeld, D., Shadmehr, R. Motor variability is not noise, but grist for the learning mill. Nat Neurosci 17, 149–150 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3633

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3633

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation