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By harnessing the brain’s ability to reorganize itself to compensate for lost functions or to control devices outside the body, Scott Frey’s research is helping guide development of a new generation of prosthetic and assistive devices. |
Watch and learn. Experience says it works, but how? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), UO neuroscientists have found that when a person watches someone else perform a task with the intention of later replicating the observed performance, motor areas of the brain are activated in a fashion similar to that which accompanies actual movement (Journal of Neuroscience, Dec. 06).
Principal investigator Scott H. Frey, professor of psychology and director of the Lewis Center for Neuroimaging at the University of Oregon, says his research aims to improve rehabilitation for individuals suffering brain or bodily injury.
“Teaching a physical skill often involves someone demonstrating the essential action components after which the learner tries to reproduce what has been observed,” said Frey, whose test subjects watched a series of digital videos of another person putting together or disassembling objects. “This is true for behaviors ranging from learning to eat with utensils, playing an instrument or performing surgery. We wanted to know how the brain takes what is seen and translates it into a motor program for guiding skilled movements.”
The subjects’ motor systems were engaged and stimulated even in the absence of overt movements. In fact, the activity in intraparietal cortex may act as a thermometer that shows how well a person is translating what they are observing into a motor program for later performance.
“This could prove important as a means of facilitating rehabilitation of individuals with movement impairments or paralyses,” said Frey.
The National Institutes of Health and the James S. McDonnell Foundation funded the research.
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