Brain, Vol 120, Issue 8 1325-1337, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
P Soliveri, RG Brown, M Jahanshahi, T Caraceni and CD Marsden
Evidence from a number of sources identifies the putamen and its ultimate
cortical projection sites as forming a possible substrate for motor
learning. The present paper describes two experiments which explored motor
learning of a pursuit tracking task under first (position) and second
(velocity) order control dynamics, in patients with Parkinson's disease on
and off (experiment 2 only) their normal dopaminergic medication. In
neither experiment did the medicated patients show evidence of significant
impairment in learning the tasks. In the velocity tracking task, however,
the patients off medication showed significantly less improvement in
performance with practice. The discussion considers a number of possible
interpretations of this finding. Contemporary cognitive theories of motor
learning consider behavioural change with practice to be the combined
action of an automatic procedural system, together with input from a
conscious declarative system. Development of declarative knowledge about
the task may have changed the nature of the process involved, from a
visually guided task to a more predictive one based upon an internal
representation. Evidence from various sources suggests that patients with
Parkinson's disease have particular problems with this mode of control,
thus making the task more difficult. It is suggested that motor control
deficits have not been adequately considered in previous studies on motor
learning, and that the evidence from clinical studies for a role of the
putamen/supplementay motor area in motor learning remains equivocal.
ARTICLES
Learning manual pursuit tracking skills in patients with Parkinson's disease
Centre for the Study and Treatment of Parkinson's and Extrapyramidal Diseases, Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy.
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