Active Exploration Enhances Learning of New Motor Skills and Sense of Agency

Learning new motor skills involves much more than mere imitation; it fundamentally relies on active exploration, which significantly contributes to the development of a sense of agency—the feeling of control over one’s actions and their outcomes. Recent research from the University of Tokyo emphasizes that engaging in trial-and-error motor exploration helps individuals establish internal models of movement, leading to a stronger sense of self-control in unfamiliar environments.

In their experiments, participants used a data glove to control a cursor on a screen through finger movements. The studies aimed to understand how the sense of agency (SoA) develops during initial learning phases when predictions about movement outcomes are not yet formed. The findings revealed that before active exploration, individuals primarily rely on the synchronization of their hand movements with cursor movements to judge control. However, after practicing and discovering the underlying movement rules—such as understanding how bending a finger moves the cursor—they increasingly perceived the cursor's movements as reflective of their own actions. Notably, simply imitating gestures without exploring the motor relationships did not produce the same enhancement in the sense of agency.

This indicates that active exploration, rather than passive imitation, is critical for building a robust internal model of motor control. Such structural internal models are formed through trial-and-error learning, allowing learners to accurately predict and feel in control of their movements. These insights have important implications for designing rehabilitation protocols, virtual reality systems, and brain-machine interfaces, where fostering a strong sense of agency can improve user engagement and performance.

The research extends current theories like the comparator model, which explains SoA based on predicted and actual sensory feedback. It demonstrates that motor exploration is essential in forming the internal models necessary for sensorimotor integration, especially in learning new skills or recovering from neurological injuries.

This study, published in Communications Psychology, highlights the importance of active engagement in motor learning, emphasizing that the journey of discovery is key to developing a sense of control and mastery in both healthy individuals and patients undergoing rehabilitation.