UCalgary clinical trial maps how we learn motor skills, and the results could be a game-changer for stroke rehabilitation.
This morning, you probably reached out of bed to turn off your alarm clock, and later brushed your teeth or buttoned a shirt. Those movements are routine; mundane, even. You are long past the point of wondering how you learned to do any of those things and don’t give a second thought to the complexity of what happened in your brain so that your arm could lift your cup of coffee.
That is, unless you or someone you know is one of the more than 60,000 Canadians who experience a stroke each year. For them, damage to their brain from a blood clot or bleeding can mean that motor skills are challenging, and understanding how to learn — or, rather, re-learn — them is suddenly very important.
