kmgopinathan@violet.waterloo.edu (Krishna Gopinathan) (04/13/88)
In article <4483@blia.BLI.COM> heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon) writes: >I remember reading in a psychobiology text some years ago that learned >physical skills are stored as programs in the cerebellum. Thus, skills >such as throwing a ball, tying a shoelace or riding a bicycle are stored >as ballistic programs in the cerebellum. These are all learned skills, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >but, once learned, they are mediated by the cerebellum. This improves >response time, since less processing is required before one acts. Can you explain what a ballistic program is? Does this idea of storing programs in the cerebellum extend to more complicated tasks like, say, playing a musical instrument or singing? Or flying an airplane? >Heather Mackinnon krishna [But what is there? All is Brahman.] gopinathan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Krishna Gopinathan kmgopina@water.bitnet Dept. of Computer Science kmgopinathan@violet.waterloo.edu University of Waterloo kmgopinathan@violet.waterloo.netnorth Waterloo, Ontario {uunet,utzoo,ubc-vision}!watmath!violet!kmgopinathan ------------------------------------------------------------------------
rossj@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Ross A. Jacobs) (04/15/88)
In article <6357@watdragon.waterloo.edu> kmgopinathan@violet.waterloo.edu (Krishna Gopinathan) writes: >In article <4483@blia.BLI.COM> heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon) >writes: > >>I remember reading in a psychobiology text some years ago that learned >>physical skills are stored as programs in the cerebellum. Thus, skills >>such as throwing a ball, tying a shoelace or riding a bicycle are stored >>as ballistic programs in the cerebellum. These are all learned skills, > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>but, once learned, they are mediated by the cerebellum. This improves >>response time, since less processing is required before one acts. > >Can you explain what a ballistic program is? Does this idea of storing >programs in the cerebellum extend to more complicated tasks like, say, >playing a musical instrument or singing? Or flying an airplane? > >>Heather Mackinnon The way it was explained to me was ballistic "programs" were just learned patterns of behavior that, when they were executed, were executed very rapidly and almost automatically. For example, playing guitar quickly requires many rapid accurate finger motions (ballistic movements), and necessarily have to occupy a small amount of cognitive space for a very (microseconds) short time. It would seem to me, then, that the only way to acquire these programs is through much practice. This has the effect of reducing the amount of attention space necessary to process the motions. Also seems to me that flying an airplane or some other complex task that constantly requires more attention than necessary due to changing conditions couldn't be stored and executed ballistically. Or at least I wouldn't want to be a passenger on a 747 with a pilot who flew without giving it a helluva lot of room in the gray matter :-).. -Ross -- Bailiff, whack his pee-pee... Ross Jacobs rossj@eleazar.Dartmouth.Edu Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 60203j@d1.Dartmouth.Edu