Competition between parallel sensorimotor learning systems

Sensorimotor learning is supported by at least two parallel systems: A strategic process that benefits from explicit knowledge, and an implicit process that adapts subconsciously. How do these systems interact? Does one system's contributions suppress the other, or do they operate independently? Here we illustrate that during reaching, implicit and explicit systems both learn from visual target errors. This shared error leads to competition such that an increase in the explicit system's response siphons away resources that are needed for implicit adaptation, thus reducing its learning. As a result, steady-state implicit learning can vary across experimental conditions, due to changes in strategy. Furthermore, strategies can mask changes in implicit learning properties, such as its error sensitivity. These ideas, however, become more complex in conditions where subjects adapt using multiple visual landmarks, a situation which introduces learning from sensory prediction errors in addition to target errors. These two types of implicit errors can oppose each other, leading to another type of competition. Thus, during sensorimotor adaptation, implicit and explicit learning systems compete for a common resource: error

Obtaining Informed Consent in an Egyptian Research Study

noThis article explores the concept of internationally acceptable codes of ethics within the context of an Egyptian nurse’s PhD studies. Theoretical work, including gaining ethical approval for the project, took place in the UK, while the data collection phase of the study was done in Egypt. This highlighted areas where the Arab Muslim interpretation of some ethical principles, especially around the issue of gaining informed consent, differed from that currently accepted in British research ethics. The authors argue that it may not be possible, or even desirable, to standardize codes of ethics globally in areas such as academic research. Ethical principles develop from a unique mix of culture and religion. It may be more important to develop cultural competence that includes the ability to understand and respect the way in which ethical principles are interpreted by various societies

Plasticity and nativism: Towards a resolution of an apparent paradox

Abstract: Recent research in brain development and cognitive development leads to an apparent paradox. One set of recent experiments suggests that infants are well-endowed with sophisticated mechanisms for analyzing the world; another set of recent experiments suggests that brain development is extremely flexible. In this paper, I review various ways of resolving the implicit tension between the two, and close with a proposal for a novel computational approach to reconciling nativism with developmental flexibility.