Motor adaptation is promoted by an incongruent Stroop task, but not by a congruent Stroop task

Motor adaptation plays an important role in the acquisition of new motor skills. It has been reported that cognitive tasks can promote motor adaptation; however, which cognitive tasks effectively promote motor adaptation remains unknown. This study aimed to examine what factors of cognitive tasks contribute to promoting motor adaptation. Forty-two healthy young adults were randomly assigned to one of three groups: incongruent Stroop task group (iSTG), congruent Stroop task group (cSTG), and control group (CG). All participants underwent 20 blocks of a mouse-tracking task on the 1st and 2nd days. Before the mouse tracking task on the 1st day, the iSTG and cSTG completed the incongruent and congruent Stroop tasks, respectively. Participants in the CG did not perform any cognitive tasks. On the 28th day, all participants underwent 3 blocks of the mouse tracking task to evaluate their retention of motor adaptation. As a result, on the 1st day, the mouse tracking task performance improved equally for both groups. However, on the 2nd and 28th days, the mouse tracking task performance in the iSTG showed greater improvements for all blocks compared to those in the CG. These results suggest that the incongruent Stroop task promotes motor adaptation, but the congruent Stroop task does not. In addition, it is suggested that factors, which are primarily involved in the incongruent Stroop task, might promote motor adaptation.