Explicitness of Task Instructions Supports Motor Learning and Modulates Engagement of Attentional Brain Networks

Learning a new motor task is a complex cognitive and motor process. Especially early during motor learning, cognitive functions such as attentional engagement, are essential, e.g., to discover relevant visual stimuli. Drawing participant’s attention towards task-relevant stimuli—e.g., with task instructions using visual cues or explicit written information—is a common practice to support cognitive engagement during training and, hence, accelerate motor learning. However, there is little scientific evidence about how visually cued or written task instructions affect attentional brain networks during motor learning. In this experiment, we trained 36 healthy participants in a virtual motor task: surfing waves by steering a boat with a joystick. We measured the participants’ motor performance and observed attentional brain networks using alpha-band electroencephalographic (EEG) activity before and after training. Participants received one of the following task instructions during training: (1) No explicit task instructions and letting participants surf freely (implicit training; IMP); (2) Task instructions provided through explicit visual cues (explicit-implicit training; E-IMP); or (3) through explicit written commands (explicit training; E). We found that providing task instructions during training (E and E-IMP) resulted in less post-training motor variability—linked to enhanced performance—compared to training without instructions (IMP). After training, participants trained with visual cues (E-IMP) enhanced the alpha-band strength over parieto-occipital and frontal brain areas at wave onset. In contrast, participants who trained with explicit commands (E) showed decreased fronto-temporal alpha activity. Thus, providing task instructions in written (E) or using visual cues (E-IMP) leads to similar motor performance improvements by enhancing activation on different attentional networks. While training with visual cues (E-IMP) may be associated with visuo-attentional processes, verbal-analytical processes may be more prominent when written explicit commands are provided (E). Together, we suggest that training parameters such as task instructions, modulate the attentional networks observed during motor practice and may support participant’s cognitive engagement, compared to training without instructions.

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Error-related Persistence of Motor Activity in Resting-state Networks

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01323 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (12) ◽

pp. 1883-1901 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicolò F. Bernardi ◽

Floris T. Van Vugt ◽

Ricardo Ruy Valle-Mena ◽

Shahabeddin Vahdat ◽

David J. Ostry

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Resting State ◽

Brain Connectivity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Neural Activation ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Movement Training ◽

Movement Error ◽

Human Participants

The relationship between neural activation during movement training and the plastic changes that survive beyond movement execution is not well understood. Here we ask whether the changes in resting-state functional connectivity observed following motor learning overlap with the brain networks that track movement error during training. Human participants learned to trace an arched trajectory using a computer mouse in an MRI scanner. Motor performance was quantified on each trial as the maximum distance from the prescribed arc. During learning, two brain networks were observed, one showing increased activations for larger movement error, comprising the cerebellum, parietal, visual, somatosensory, and cortical motor areas, and the other being more activated for movements with lower error, comprising the ventral putamen and the OFC. After learning, changes in brain connectivity at rest were found predominantly in areas that had shown increased activation for larger error during task, specifically the cerebellum and its connections with motor, visual, and somatosensory cortex. The findings indicate that, although both errors and accurate movements are important during the active stage of motor learning, the changes in brain activity observed at rest primarily reflect networks that process errors. This suggests that error-related networks are represented in the initial stages of motor memory formation.

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Expert Event Segmentation of Dance Is Genre-Specific and Primes Verbal Memory

Vision ◽

10.3390/vision4030035 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 35

Author(s):

Paula M. Di Nota ◽

Michael P. Olshansky ◽

Joseph F.X. DeSouza

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Verbal Memory ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Control Sequence ◽

Event Segmentation ◽

Memory Processing ◽

Different Types ◽

Induced Forgetting ◽

Sensorimotor Representations

By chunking continuous streams of action into ordered, discrete, and meaningful units, event segmentation facilitates motor learning. While expertise in the observed repertoire reduces the frequency of event borders, generalization of this effect to unfamiliar genres of dance and among other sensorimotor experts (musicians, athletes) remains unknown, and was the first aim of this study. Due to significant overlap in visuomotor, language, and memory processing brain networks, the second aim of this study was to investigate whether visually priming expert motor schemas improves memory for words related to one’s expertise. A total of 112 participants in six groups (ballet, Bharatanatyam, and “other” dancers, athletes, musicians, and non-experts) segmented a ballet dance, a Bharatanatyam dance, and a non-dance control sequence. To test verbal memory, participants performed a retrieval-induced forgetting task between segmentation blocks. Dance, instrument, and sport word categories were included to probe the second study aim. Results of the event segmentation paradigm clarify that previously-established expert segmentation effects are specific to familiar genres of dance, and do not transfer between different types of experts or to non-dance sequences. Greater recall of dance category words among ballet and Bharatanatyam dancers provides novel evidence for improved verbal memory primed by activating familiar sensorimotor representations.

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Magnetic resonance imaging of mouse brain networks plasticity following motor learning

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0216596 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. e0216596 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Alexandra Badea ◽

Kwan L. Ng ◽

Robert J. Anderson ◽

Jiangyang Zhang ◽

Michael I. Miller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Mouse Brain ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Resonance Imaging

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Lessons From the Neural Bases of Speech and Voice

Perspectives on Speech Science and Orofacial Disorders ◽

10.1044/ssod21.1.5 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 5-14

Author(s):

Christy L. Ludlow

Keyword(s):

Brain Networks ◽

Neural Substrates ◽

Voice Behavior ◽

Therapeutic Approaches ◽

Neural Bases ◽

Sound Foundation ◽

The Brain ◽

Normal Speech

The premise of this article is that increased understanding of the brain bases for normal speech and voice behavior will provide a sound foundation for developing therapeutic approaches to establish or re-establish these functions. The neural substrates involved in speech/voice behaviors, the types of muscle patterning for speech and voice, the brain networks involved and their regulation, and how they can be externally modulated for improving function will be addressed.

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Motor Learning and Synaptic Plasticity in the Cerebellum

10.1017/cbo9780511666896 ◽

1997 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

Synaptic Plasticity ◽

Motor Learning

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Examining the Effects of Task Instructions to Induce Implicit Theories of Intelligence on a Rational Thinking Task

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000291 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 225 (2) ◽

pp. 146-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ivar Bråten ◽

Andreas Lien ◽

John Nietfeld

Keyword(s):

Implicit Theories ◽

Male Students ◽

Task Instruction ◽

Rational Thinking ◽

Implicit Theories Of Intelligence ◽

Entity Theory ◽

Theories Of Intelligence ◽

Theory Of Intelligence ◽

Task Instructions ◽

Culture Specificity

Abstract. In two experiments with Norwegian undergraduates and one experiment with US undergraduates, we examined the potential effects of brief task instructions aligned with incremental and entity views of intelligence on students’ performance on a rational thinking task. The research demonstrated that even brief one-shot task instructions that deliver a mindset about intelligence intervention can be powerful enough to affect students’ performance on such a task. This was only true for Norwegian male students, however. Moreover, it was the task instruction aligned with an entity theory of intelligence that positively affected Norwegian male students’ performance on the rational thinking task, with this unanticipated finding speaking to the context- and culture-specificity of implicit theories of intelligence interventions.

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