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Updated: Jul 23, 2025

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task
Published on: May 3, 2018
Nomen est omen: Serial reaction time task is not a motor but a visuomotor learning task
Felipe Pedraza1,2, Teodóra Vékony1, Dezso Nemeth1,3
1INSERM, CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, Bron, France.
Abstract:
The serial reaction time task is a widely used task in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience to assess human and animal learning. Many publications refer to this task as a 'motor learning task', but it is also a perceptual learning task. We emphasize here that the incorrect use of the term 'motor learning' misleads researchers and medical doctors by emphasizing the motor cortex's exclusive role. It has the potential to lead to the misinterpretation of neuroscientific, neuroimaging and clinical studies. The domino effect has the potential to generate more flawed hypotheses and theories.
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