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The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

High variability impairs motor learning regardless of whether it affects task performance.

Marco Cardis¹, Maura Casadio¹, Rajiv Ranganathan^2,3

¹Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa , Genoa , Italy.

Journal of Neurophysiology

|September 29, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Introducing motor variability during learning can hinder retention of motor skills. Higher amounts of variability negatively impacted performance more than the dimension in which it was introduced.

Keywords:

motor learning null space redundancy task space variability

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Area of Science:

Motor control and learning
Human movement science

Background:

Motor variability is crucial for motor learning, but its precise role, especially in redundant tasks, remains unclear.
Redundant tasks allow variability to be introduced in task-relevant (task space) or task-irrelevant (null space) dimensions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how introducing variability in the task space versus the null space affects motor learning in a redundant task.
To determine whether the amount or the dimension of variability has a greater impact on motor skill acquisition and retention.

Main Methods:

Participants learned a bimanual shuffleboard task over two days.
Variability was experimentally introduced in either the task space or null space, with varying amounts.
Performance was assessed by measuring error in puck placement relative to the target.

Main Results:

All participant groups improved performance with practice, reducing errors.
Higher amounts of introduced motor variability during practice led to greater final errors.
The amount of variability introduced had a more significant impact on learning outcomes than the dimension (task vs. null space).

Conclusions:

Introducing motor variability during practice can impair the retention of learned motor skills.
The quantity of variability is a more critical factor than its spatial dimension in influencing motor learning outcomes.
While variability may encourage exploration, excessive amounts can be detrimental to skill consolidation.