New pre-print!

We attempt to survey the two different universes of motor learning research: basic (meetings like NCM, MLMC) and applied (e.g. NASPSA), and consider what these fields can learn from each other and what the future might look like if they can be better integrated.

More in Eric's 🧵 👇

I agree there are other cons that have a more subtle impact and will be harder to mitigate - like failure to properly cite or attribute ideas, or potentially leading everyone up the same path. Those are the ones to be concerned about, not so much AI hallucination/confabulation.

I would say a “bad” AI user is someone who uses it without being wary of its limitations and without properly validating its output. I expect most scientists to be capable of using AI with appropriate skepticism of its output.

Bad, lazy scientists are nothing new, but they are a small minority. I'm confident most of us will be able to use it wisely to make our science better

So many pros. Most 'cons' are avoidable by basic common sense: don't just blindly assume that what it outputs is correct or true. The alarmism seems to be all about how *other* people will use it - bad, lazy scientists using it to do bad, lazy science.

Cerebellar circuit computations for predictive motor control — a Review by Katrina P. Nguyen & Abigail L. Person

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#neuroscience #neuroskyence

Very excited to share our new paper with @adrianhaith.bsky.social, now published in @nathumbehav.nature.com.

In this article, @jetrach.bsky.social and McDougle show that motor responses can form part of structured, graph-like memory representations. @actlab.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In this article, @yuedu.bsky.social and @adrianhaith.bsky.social show that behavior can become habitual in two different ways, involving response initiation and response preparation, respectively
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I recommend this paper: www.frontiersin.org/journals/com...

The argument is that you may see synergy "signatures" exist in OFC-based control, even though there were no synergy assumptions used to generate the behavior. The point being that seeing apparent signatures of synergies isn't really good evidence that there really are underlying synergies.

That is correct. I wouldn't call error compensation a "side effect" – the whole point of OFC to use online feedback to correct (task-relevant) errors. Certainly no assumptions of synergy-like constraints on particular combination of muscle activations.

POSTDOC JOB OPENING. My lab at @mossresearch.bsky.social has an opening for a postdoc fellow to work with @aaronlwong.bsky.social and me on an NSF-funded research program studying mechanisms of sensory plasticity that accompany adaptive motor learning. The full posting is below. Please share!

We are recruiting trainees for the Integrative Movement Sciences Summer Institute. Students will gain research experience in dynamic muscular control of movement across organizational scales from molecular mechanisms to whole-body movement in complex environments.

Learn more: tinyurl.com/5n7w6pey

Want to hear more about how feedback can guide learning in RNNs for motor adaptation. Here is our new paper in Nat. Com. with Barbara Feulner and @juangallego.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨New paper alert🚨
Skin stretches when we move, but how complex are these patterns? How may this be encoded?
Local postural changes elicit extensive and diverse skin stretch around joints, on the trunk and the face - now in @royalsociety.org Interface

We have a great program lined up for NCM 2025 in Panama! Poster submissions are open until Feb 17th. #NCMPan25

Our Barcelona-based summer school, BAMB! (bambschool.org) just opened applications! Come join us: 15-24th July, to learn how to model behavioral data using RL, Bayesian, latent variable models, RNNs, DDMs & more! #BAMB2025

Excited this one is finally out!

The forced response method: A new chronometric approach to measure conflict processing
with @hanzhang.bsky.social

link.springer.com/10.3758/s134...

Can we better study how the conflict between goal-directed and habitual/automatic actions is resolved? Read on!

Just under 2 weeks left to submit your panel and individual talk proposals for #NCM2025 in Panama. Dec 2nd deadline. There's still time to put together a panel proposal if you haven't already! Details at ncm-society.org/submission/