Daniel Wolpert - Computational principles underlying the learning of sensorimotor repertoires

Monday, November 7, 2022
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Stanford Neurosciences Building
290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Rotunda, E241

Computational principles underlying the learning of sensorimotor repertoires

Abstract 

Humans spend a lifetime learning, storing and refining a repertoire of motor memories appropriate for the multitude of tasks we perform. However, it is unknown what principle underlies the way our continuous stream of sensorimotor experience is segmented into separate memories and how we adapt and use this growing repertoire. I will review our work on how humans learn to make skilled movements focussing on the role  role of context in organizing motor memories. I will then present a principled theory of motor learning based on the key insight that memory creation, updating, and expression are all controlled by a single computation – contextual inference. Unlike dominant theories of single-context learning, our repertoire-learning model accounts for key features of motor learning that had no unified explanation and predicts novel phenomena, which we confirm experimentally. These results suggest that contextual inference is a key principle underlying how a diverse set of experiences is reflected in motor behavior.


Daniel Wolpert

Columbia University

(Visit lab website)

Daniel Wolpert read medicine at Cambridge before completing an Oxford Physiology DPhil and a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. He joined the faculty at the Institute of Neurology, UCL in 1995  and moved to Cambridge University in 2005 where he was Professor of Engineering and a Royal Society Research Professor. In 2018 he joined the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University as Professor of Neuroscience. He  was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (2012) and  has been awarded the  Royal Society Francis Crick Prize Lecture (2005), the Minerva Foundation Golden Brain Award (2010) and the  Royal Society  Ferrier medal (2020). His research interests are computational and experimental approaches to human movement (www.wolpertlab.com).

About the Wu Tsai Neuro MBCT Seminar Series 
The Stanford Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology Seminars (MBCT) explores ways in which computational and technical approaches are being used to advance the frontiers of neuroscience. It features speakers from other institutions, Stanford faculty and senior training program trainees. 

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