Neural basis for motor adaptation and motor learning

When faced with a new situation, animals including humans can learn new skills from scratch, typically following days of practice —think of learning how to play guitar. Similarly, they can also take a known skill and adapt it to new conditions —think of a guitar virtuoso taking up the bass—, during a much faster timescale. These two processes, typically referred to as motor learning and motor adaptation, also involve multiple brain regions whose interactions evolve over time. Building on recent theoretical work by several groups including ours, we are using multi-region recordings and neural and behavioural manipulations in behaving mice to explore how control policies are learned and adapted to achieve this fascinating behavioural flexibility.