Toward the understanding of neurophysiological substrates associated with motor exploratory behavior

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21520
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H06449 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0909:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
• Research Institution: Fujita Health University
• Principal Investigator: Uehara Shintaro 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 講師 (30725130)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 運動探索 / 運動学習 / 外側前頭前野 / 経頭蓋磁気刺激 / 経頭蓋直流電流刺激

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Relying on the hypothesis that the lateral prefrontal cortex contributes to motor exploratory behavior in humans, we investigated fundamental properties of neurophysiological index possibly reflecting prefrontal activity and those of motor exploration. The study demonstrated that, while the neurophysiological proxy can reflect a certain level of prefrontal activity changes, it may not have enough level of sensitivity to capture marginal changes. Another behavioral experiment showed that the amount of motor exploration increased when participants were exposed to a learning situation and its increase sustained throughout learning processes. These findings provided fundamental knowledge to further understand human motor exploratory behavior.

Free Research Field

リハビリテーション科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

私たちは新しいスポーツに取り組む時など、最も良い結果に繋がる方法を見つけるべく様々な運動を試す。これは運動探索と呼ばれ、合目的運動の新規学習において重要な役割を担うことが示唆されている。しかしながら、運動探索行動の神経機序や基本的特性は明らかにされていなかった。本研究は、効率的な学習を促すための条件設定や定型的運動パターンにおちいった際に効果的に脱却できる介入手法など、身体教育やリハビリテーション領域での応用への足掛かりとなる基礎的知見を提供した。