The Role of Movement Variability in Motor Control and Learning, Analysis Methods and Practical Applications

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Background

Human motor variability has been traditionally interpreted as an error of the system. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that the central nervous system actively regulates movement variations to ease exploring different movement solutions until finding the optimal one. Thus, motor variability seems also to have a functional role and provides useful information about the characteristics of an individual's motor control and its ability to adapt. Based on that, several researchers have manipulated motor variability by practicing to maximize learning processes but there are still many open questions in this regard.

On the one hand, the relationship between intrinsic motor variability and the ability to adapt seems to depend on the individuals and task constraints. The apprentice experience, the neural implications of variability, the role of the context, or even the type of protocols or measurement tools applied to analyze variability, inspired most current studies on this topic. On the other hand, how practice conditions should be modulated to promote practitioners to functionally use their movement variability to promote adaptation and motor learning also needs to be addressed. The theoretical interest on how to modulate motor variability to enhance control and learning process has several practical implications in several fields like motor learning, sports training, and neuro-rehabilitation.

This Research Topic focuses on understanding how the interaction between the features of individuals with different motor capabilities (e.g. experience or brain disorders) and task constraints modulates the relation between motor variability, motor control, and skill acquisition. In this sense, more research about measurement tools, the impact of the individual’s features, and how different task constraints need different variability requirements are needed.

We welcome different forms of original articles, reviews, and perspectives in our scope of movement variability applied to motor control and learning. We are particularly interested in research articles and methods-based articles addressing the following topics:
- Behavioral and neurophysiological studies in movement variability
- Non-linear methods to analyze motor variability.
- Variability in redundancy and depending on the level of intent.
- Variability and deliberateness vs spontaneity in the motions behaviors
- The relationship between motor variability and motor control and learning in populations with different capabilities.
- The relationship between motor variability and learning process in different motor tasks.
- The amount and the way of applying variability in practice in laboratory and real-world contexts.
- The analysis of motor variability to identify and classify different levels of motor impairment.

Keywords: Adaptation, Complexity, Coordination, Capabilities, Dexterity, Impairment, Movement Dynamics, Non-linear tools, Constraint led, Non-linear pedagogy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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