The neural correlates of motor skill automaticity

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Motor Learning

Background:

• Skill acquisition typically involves a transition from effortful control to automaticity.
• Automaticity is characterized by minimal performance disruption when multitasking.
• Understanding the neural underpinnings of automaticity is crucial for cognitive and motor learning research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural basis of automaticity during skill acquisition.
• To identify brain regions involved in the shift from novice to automatic performance.
• To examine how functional brain activity changes with extensive practice in a serial reaction time task.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to monitor brain activity.
• Subjects performed a serial reaction time (SRT) task under single-task and dual-task conditions.
• Behavioral training over multiple days was employed to induce automaticity, with fMRI scans before and after training.

Main Results:

• Behavioral data confirmed the automation of the SRT task after training.
• Initially, dual-task performance activated widespread frontal, striatal, and parietal regions.
• Post-training, reduced activation was observed in specific areas like the ventral premotor cortex and right middle frontal gyrus during dual-task performance.

Conclusions:

• Lateral and dorsolateral prefrontal regions and their striatal connections are key for novice dual-task executive control.
• Training-related decreases in the supplementary motor area and basal ganglia (putamen/globus pallidus) support the representation of learned motor sequences.
• Automaticity is associated with a reallocation of neural resources, with reduced reliance on executive control networks.