According to the findings of a Hopkins biomedical engineer, practice, practice, practice is only part of the story. In the August 8 Science , Reza Shadmehr reports that for several hours after a person first learns a new motor skill such as playing the violin or riding a bike, the brain is hard at work consolidating and storing the new memory. Exactly how and where the brain stores motor skills has been a big gap in neuroscientists' understanding of memory, notes Shadmehr.
Brain injury can impair motor memories, a condition called apraxia.
But studies of such patients have not pointed to a single location for motor skills. Shadmehr, a professor of biomedical engineering with an expertise in building robots, comes at this research indirectly. To learn how to build robot control systems, he turned to studying the brain, specifically asking how the brain learns to control the arm. The arm was programmed with a particular force so that participants felt they were dragging a very light object through a viscous medium. The volunteers practiced first in the morning and then returned to the lab six hours later to repeat the task.