Trial-to-trial variability in the execution of movements and motor skills is ubiquitous and
widely considered to be the unwanted consequence of a noisy nervous system. However …

Although we may not realize it, our brain function varies markedly from moment to moment
such that our brain responses exhibit substantial variability across trials even in response to …

The basal ganglia are known to influence action selection and modulation of movement
vigor, but whether and how they contribute to specifying the kinematics of learned motor …

Individual differences in motor learning ability are widely acknowledged, yet little is known
about the factors that underlie them. Here we explore whether movement-to-movement …

Many theories of brain function propose that activity in sparse subsets of neurons underlies
perception and action. To place a lower bound on the amount of neural activity that can be …

Neural activity and behavior in laboratory experiments are surprisingly variable across trials.
This variability and its potential causes have been the focus of a spirited debate. Here we …

Aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) is required for the synthesis of the
neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Children with defects in the AADC gene show …

Most of our motor skills are not innately programmed, but are learned by a combination of
motor exploration and performance evaluation, suggesting that they proceed through a …

Songbirds, long of interest to basic neuroscience, have great potential as a model system for
translational neuroscience. Songbirds learn their complex vocal behavior in a manner that …

Here we argue that general principles with regard to the contributions of the cerebellum,
basal ganglia, and primary motor cortex to motor learning can begin to be inferred from …