Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Malleable templates: reshaping our crystallized skills to create new outcomes

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 248–249 (2008)Cite this article

Even well-practiced skills show trial-by-trial variations. A study in Nature suggests that such variability may be adaptive, allowing for plasticity in apparently crystallized skills, which should therefore be considered more like templates.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The birdsong of the bengalese finch can be reshaped by selective adaptation.

Kim Caesar

References

  1. Sutton, R.S. & Barto, A.G. Reinforcement Learning (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Tumer, E.C. & Brainard, M.S. Nature 450, 1240–1244 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. van Beers, R.J., Haggard, P. & Wolpert, D.M. J. Neurophysiol. 91, 1050–1063 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Cheng, S. & Sabes, P.N. J. Neurophysiol. 97, 3057–3069 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Montague, P.R., Hyman, S.E. & Cohen, J.D. Nature 431, 760–767 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schmidt, R.A. & Lee, T.D. Motor Control and Learning (Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mechsner, F., Kerzel, D., Knoblich, G. & Prinz, W. Nature 414, 69–73 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Blakemore, S.J. & Sirigu, A. Exp. Brain. Res. 153, 239–245 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tunik, E., Frey, S.H. & Grafton, S.T. Nat. Neurosci. 8, 505–511 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kording, K.P., Tenenbaum, J.B. & Shadmehr, R. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 779–786 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The author is in the Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. grafton@psych.ucsb.edu,

    Scott T Grafton

Authors
  1. Scott T Grafton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Grafton, S. Malleable templates: reshaping our crystallized skills to create new outcomes. Nat Neurosci 11, 248–249 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0308-248

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0308-248

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing