Description
The capacity of learning new motor skills has a tremendous importance at each stage of lifespan. For example, children need to learn new motor patterns to grasp objects and to start independent locomotion. Similarly, older adults may need to learn new motor skills to cope with the new mobility demands arising from the consequences of aging. Motor learning is also of great importance in rehabilitation. For example, when stroke patients need to relearn previously known movements after brain injury.
The practice of movements is essential for the acquisition of new motor skills. After practice, motor memories are stabilized in the brain as a form of procedural memory. However, during this period of consolidation motor memories are extremely fragile and thus disruption of learning may occur.
Recent data suggest that the acquisition and consolidation of new motor skills can be greatly optimized when appropriate strategies are employed. New strategies to optimize motor learning include, among many others, sleep, motor imagery, brain stimulation as well as medications. The goal of this symposium is to discuss the application of new methods to optimize the acquisition and consolidation of motor skills in different populations.
We aim to cover this topic from basic to applied science. The symposium will bring together scientists investigating molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the acquisition of motor skills as well as scientists and clinicians interested in the practical application of new principles and tools to optimize motor learning.
