Asymmetric effector transfer of complex movement sequences

An experiment was designed to determine if the addition of a load altered the effector transfer profile observed in earlier experiments using multi-element movement sequences. The acquisition task required participants to move a horizontal lever (with 0.567kg load) to 16 sequentially projected targets. One group practiced the movement sequence with their right (dominant) limb and another group practiced with their left (non-dominant) limb. Approximately 24h after completion of the acquisition session both groups were administered test blocks (0kg, 0.567kg, and 1.134kg) using their practiced and unpracticed limbs. Decreased and increased loads had minimal effect on test performance. The results indicated that the group trained with their left limb were able to perform the right limb tests as well as the group that trained with the right limb. However, the group that trained with their right limb were significantly slower performing the tests with the left limb than the group that practiced with their left limb. Importantly, the left acquisition limb group maintained the pattern of element durations used during practice on the various tests including transfer to the dominant limb. However, the pattern of element durations for the right acquisition limb group on the left limb transfer tests was altered such that the production of only the fastest produced elements were disrupted. These results suggest that one of the reasons for poor sequence performance when transferring from the right to left is because the sequence structure developed during acquisition and used on the tests lacked access to the appropriate commands or the controller lacked the ability to implement codes that effectively manage the movement dynamics.