Motor skill acquisition inherently depends on the way one practices the motor task. The amount of motor task variability during practice has been shown to foster transfer of the learned skill to other similar motor tasks. In addition, variability in a learning schedule, in which a task and its variations are interweaved during practice, has been shown to help the transfer of learning in motor s...

According to the schema theory, variability during practice allows for a larger repertoire of movements to help form a generalized motor program for similar motor skills. Varied training is thought to enhance long-term retention of the motor program due to the heightened difficulty presented. In a highly cited study on this topic, Kerr and Booth (Perceptual and Motor Skills 46 (1978), 395-401) ...

Traditional studies of motor learning and prediction have focused on how subjects perform a single task. Recent advances have been made in our understanding of motor learning and prediction by investigating the way we learn variable tasks, which change either predictably or unpredictably over time. Similarly, studies have examined how variability in our own movements affects motor learning.

Groucho and Tup1 are members of a conserved family of WD repeat proteins that interact with specific transcription factors to repress target genes. Here we show that mutations in WD domains of the Groucho-like protein, UNC-37, affect a motor neuron trait that also depends on UNC-4, a homeodomain protein that controls neuronal specificity in Caenorhabditis elegans. In unc-4 mutants, VA motor neu...

Intracellular protein traffic plays an important role in the regulation of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) chloride channels. Microtubule and actin-based motor proteins direct CFTR movement along trafficking pathways. As shown for other regulatory proteins such as adaptors, the involvement of protein motors in CFTR traffic is cell-type specific. Understanding motor sp...

spinal muscular atrophy (sma) is a genetic disorder which affect nervous system and is characterized with progressive distal motor neuron weakness. the survival motor neuron (smn) protein level reduces in patients with sma. two different genes code survival motor neuron protein in human genome. skeletal and intercostal muscles denervation lead to weakness, hypotony, hyporeflexia, respiratory fa...

Introduction: Aluminum is known as a neurotoxic element which causes neurodegeneration, learning deduction and movement disorders. Aluminum ions in the brain cause serious problems such as Alzheimer, Parkinson and other degenerative diseases. On the other hand, Zinc is a dietary element essential for several biological processes, modulates neurotransmission in brain regions and associates wi...

Kinesin is a dimeric motor protein that can move along a microtubule for several microns without releasing (termed processive movement). The two motor domains of the dimer are thought to move in a coordinated, hand-over-hand manner. A region adjacent to kinesin's motor catalytic domain (the neck) contains a coiled coil that is sufficient for motor dimerization and has been proposed to play an e...