Clinical Pilates in Practice: Visuomotor Adaptation & Passive Movement
This study examined the lasting effect of passive training on visuomotor adaptation within a 24-hour timeline.
G. Tays et al. Consolidation of use-dependent motor memories induced by passive movement training. Neuroscience Letters 732 (2020) 135080.
Key Points: Visomotor Adaptation & Passive Movement
Adapting to a sensorimotor environment requires complex and dynamic systems that can adjust to the environment within minutes, resulting in long-term performance changes.
Adaptation is driven by two primary learning mechanisms:
→ Error-based, model-based, or algorithmic learning; and
→ Use-dependent, model-free, or instant-reliant training.
Use-dependent learning occurs both during active and passive movements.
Passive movement training has the capacity to facilitate subsequent visuomotor adaptation.
→ Results showed improvement after one-hour and 24-hour delay conditions.
Use-dependent learning alongside passive movement training enhances the consolidation of motor memories, which can last at least 24-hours post initial training.
Use-dependent-based training methods could be applied as a neurorehabilitation technique in clinical settings.
Visuomotor adaptation led to motor memory consolidation at 24 hours, but not after five minutes.
Provision of proprioceptive and visual inputs was more effective for optimal motor learning compared to provision of just proprioceptive inputs.
Clinical Pilates in Practice
Use vision to support the learning of new motor patterns; while it can be great to close our eyes and “feel” the body moving, visual inputs are important for stimulating motor learning.
Often, we see patients who have a greater passive than active range of motion; this can be exploited for learning new movement patterns when in earlier stages of rehabilitation.
→ Consider integrating closed-kinetic-chain exercises that support passive mobility around a joint while still teaching the desired functional movement.
Active ranges are often pain-limited.
→ Incorporating an active-assisted, or passive component to exercises can help maintain pain-free ranges of movement, while still assisting the learning of new motor patterns.