News Finding: "We found that the brain works in a similar way during learning.
Paper Finding: Number of within-manifold perturbations, n 5 27 (monkey J), 14 (monkey L); outsidemanifold perturbations, n 5 33 (monkey J), 15 (monkey L).
News Context: Understanding the ways in which the brain's activity can be "flexed" during learning could eventually be used to develop better treatments for stroke and other brain injuries. "We found that the brain works in a similar way during learning. We found that subjects were able to more readily recombine familiar activity patterns in new ways relative to creating entirely novel patterns."
Paper Context: These data are consistent with the hypothesis that relatively little learning occurred during the outside-manifold perturbations in comparison to the within-manifold perturbations. Number of within-manifold perturbations, n 5 27 (monkey J), 14 (monkey L); outsidemanifold perturbations, n 5 33 (monkey J), 15 (monkey L). The monkeys minimally moved their hands, but the movements did not approach the limits of the restraints.