Review of Motor Control and Motor Learning

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder that primarily affects older individuals and their ability to engage in daily occupations. Occupational therapists are actively involved in the training and retraining of functional motor skills with this population. Motor control theories may assist clinicians in understanding the movement difficulties that these individuals experience. Motor learning principles may be implemented to facilitate the learning of adaptive skills and/or previous motor tasks. Both motor control and motor learning research findings may influence occupational therapy treatment approaches for the rehabilitation of this population. The purpose of this paper is to review the current knowledge in the areas of motor control and motor learning, discuss this knowledge as it applies to Parkinson's disease, and integrate this information into occupational therapy treatment.

Key Words:

• Motor control
• motor learning
• Parkinson's disease
• occupational therapy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diane W. Tse

Jennifer R. Johnson was a graduate student in the School of Occupational Therapy, Texas Woman's University, Houston, TX at the time of this study. She is currently employed as an Occupational Therapist at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, LA

Debra Stewart is Lecturer, School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University and staff therapist at Erinoak Centre, Missis-sauga, Ontario. She is currently completing a MSc (Design, Measurement and Evaluation) at McMaster University.