Professor Daichi Nozaki of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Education and colleagues have clarified that motor memory related to human motor learning is created according to the state of the brain during training.It will also be possible to artificially manipulate human motor memory from the outside, and it is expected to be applied to efficient training of athletes and rehabilitation from paralysis.
According to the University of Tokyo, Professor Nozaki and his colleagues made participants in the experiment move their arms forward while holding a handle that exerts a left- or right-pointing force.At this time, electrodes are placed on the scalp, and two different current stimuli with anode or cathode polarities are applied to the area that plays a central role in the formation of motor memory, which is the primary motor cortex of the brain, and the force applied to the handle. The direction of the current and the polarity of the current stimulus were made to match.
When trying to do the same exercise after motor learning is completed, if the state of the brain at the time of learning is reproduced by applying current stimulation, the motor memory corresponding to the polarity is revived, even though no force is applied to the handle. It turned out that I was putting unnecessary force in the same direction as when I did motor learning.
This indicates that different motor memories are formed without the participants noticing, depending on the state of the artificially created brain.Furthermore, it was revealed that this memory is recalled by the state of the brain.
In order to maximize the effects of motor learning, it is important to prepare the state of the brain, and it will be possible to apply it as a practical training method.
