scholarly journals Competitive state of actions during planning predicts sequence execution accuracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrto Mantziara ◽  
Tsvetoslav Ivanov ◽  
George Houghton ◽  
Katja Kornysheva
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
List Type ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Selection Gradient ◽  
Sequence Planning ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Sequence Elements ◽  
Preparation Period ◽  
Competitive Queuing

SummaryHumans can learn and retrieve novel skilled movement sequences from memory, yet the content and structure of sequence planning are not well understood. Previous computational and neurophysiological work suggests that actions in a sequence are planned as parallel graded activations and selected for output through competition (competitive queuing; CQ). However, the relevance of CQ during planning to sequence fluency and accuracy, as opposed to sequence timing, is unclear. To resolve this question, we assessed the competitive state of constituent actions behaviourally during sequence preparation. In three separate multi-session experiments, 55 healthy participants were trained to retrieve and produce 4-finger sequences with particular timing from long-term memory. In addition to sequence production, we evaluated reaction time (RT) and error rate increase to constituent action probes at several points during the preparation period. Our results demonstrate that longer preparation time produces a steeper CQ activation and selection gradient between adjacent sequence elements, whilst no effect was found for sequence speed or temporal structure. Further, participants with a steeper CQ gradient tended to produce correct sequences faster and with a higher temporal accuracy. In a computational model, we hypothesize that the CQ gradient during planning is driven by the width of acquired positional tuning of each sequential item, independently of timing. Our results suggest that competitive activation during sequence planning is established gradually during sequence planning and predicts sequence fluency and accuracy, rather than the speed or temporal structure of the motor sequence.HighlightsPre-ordering of actions during sequence planning can be assessed behaviourallyCompetitive gradient reflects sequence preparedness and skill, but not speed or timingGradient is retrieved rapidly and revealed during automatic action selectionPositional tuning of actions boosts the competitive gradient during planning

Evidence for chunking vs. statistical learning in motor sequence production

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola J. Popp ◽  
Neda Kordjaz ◽  
Paul Gribble ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Sequence Production

scholarly journals The effects of habits on motor skill learning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola J. Popp ◽  
Atsushi Yokoi ◽  
Paul L. Gribble ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Athletic Training ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Habit Formation ◽  
Motor Pattern ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Training Period ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Sequence Production

AbstractSkill learning involves the formation of stable motor patterns. In musical and athletic training, however, these stable motor habits can also impede the attainment of higher levels of performance. We developed an experimental paradigm to induce a specific motor pattern in the context of a discrete sequence production task and to investigate how these habits affect performance over a 3-week training period. Participants initially practiced small segments of 2 to 3 finger movements (“chunks”) and then learned longer sequences composed of these chunks. This initial training induced a persistent temporal pattern during execution, with shorter inter-press-intervals within a chunk and longer ones at chunk boundaries. This pattern remained stable during the subsequent 10 days of training, in which participants were asked to produce the sequence as fast as possible from memory. The habit was also preserved when the sequences were directly displayed, removing the need for memory recall. We were able to induce chunking patterns that were either beneficial or detrimental to performance by taking into consideration the biomechanical constraints of the sequences. While we observed an overall reduction in the detrimental effect of the disadvantageous chunking instructions with training, our results show that the degree to which these detrimental chunk structures were maintained, was predictive of lower levels of final performance. In sum, we were able to induce beneficial and detrimental motor habits in a motor sequence production task and show that these initial instructions influenced performance outcomes over a prolonged period of time.Significance StatementA habit is defined as an automatized action that resists modification once sufficiently established. Preventing bad habits, while reinforcing good habits, is a key objective when teaching new motor skills. While habit formation is an integral part of motor skill acquisition, previous research has focused on habit formation in terms of action selection. In this paper, we examine habit formation in terms of motor skill execution, after the action has been selected. We were able to induce beneficial or detrimental motor habits in the production of motor sequences. Habits were stable over a prolonged training period. Our results demonstrate how cognitive instruction can lead to persistent motor habits and we explore how these habits are potentially modified with training.

scholarly journals Dissociating refreshing and elaboration and their impacts on memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea M. Bartsch ◽  
Vanessa M. Loaiza ◽  
Lutz Jäncke ◽  
Klaus Oberauer ◽  
Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
List Type ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Related

AbstractMaintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.HighlightsRepeated reading, refreshing, and elaboration are differentiable in brain activation patterns in both young and older adults.Elaboration selectively improved long-term memory for young adults, and the size of the benefit was related to the neural separability of elaboration from other processes.Older adults implemented a sub-optimal form of elaboration, and this may be a factor contributing to age-related deficits in long-term memory.Ethics statementThe study was approved by the ethical review board of the canton of Zurich (BASEC-No. 2017-00190) and all subjects gave informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.Data and code availability statementAll behavioral data and analysis scripts can be assessed on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/p2h8b/). The fMRI data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, LMB. The fMRI data are not publicly available due to restrictions of the Swiss Ethics Committees on research involving humans regarding data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Translation, Emphasis, Synthesis, Disturbance: On the function of music in visual music

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-127
Author(s):  
Anton Fuxjäger
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
List Type ◽  
Visual Music ◽  
Moving Images

Starting from the premiss that the central aesthetic feature of non-representational moving images (visual music) is their structuring of reception time, the function of the accompanying music in contributing to the total (combined) temporal structure of the resulting artwork is discussed. A taxonomy of the different roles that music can play in the production and reception of visual music consisting of three basic categories is presented and examples are given:•‘Music translations’: certain parameters of the accompanying music are transcoded into certain visual parameters, the accompanying music thereby provides the temporal structure of the audiovisual artwork.•‘Synthetic structures’: the music and the images provide different temporal informations with enough coincidences to be synthesised into a combined audiovisual strucuture by the viewer/listener.•‘Mutual disturbance’: the aforementioned process fails to be realised due to a lack of sufficient points of synchronisation. As a result the accompanying music will disrupt the recognition of the temporal structure of the images and vice versa.

scholarly journals Sequence learning is driven by improvements in motor planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 2088-2100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Ariani ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Single Action ◽  
Online Planning ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Planning Processes

The ability to perform complex sequences of movements quickly and accurately is critical for many motor skills. Although training improves performance in a large variety of motor sequence tasks, the precise mechanisms behind such improvements are poorly understood. Here we investigated the contribution of single-action selection, sequence preplanning, online planning, and motor execution to performance in a discrete sequence production task. Five visually presented numbers cued a sequence of five finger presses, which had to be executed as quickly and accurately as possible. To study how sequence planning influenced sequence production, we manipulated the amount of time that participants were given to prepare each sequence by using a forced-response paradigm. Over 4 days, participants were trained on 10 sequences and tested on 80 novel sequences. Our results revealed that participants became faster in selecting individual finger presses. They also preplanned three or four sequence items into the future, and the speed of preplanning improved for trained, but not for untrained, sequences. Because preplanning capacity remained limited, the remaining sequence elements had to be planned online during sequence execution, a process that also improved with sequence-specific training. Overall, our results support the view that motor sequence learning effects are best characterized by improvements in planning processes that occur both before and concurrently with motor execution. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Complex skills often require the production of sequential movements. Although practice improves performance, it remains unclear how these improvements are achieved. Our findings show that learning effects in a sequence production task can be attributed to an enhanced ability to plan upcoming movements. These results shed new light on planning processes in the context of movement sequences and have important implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie skill acquisition.

scholarly journals Long-term memory for temporal structure:

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 896-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Schulkind
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory

scholarly journals Sequence learning is driven by improvements in motor planning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Ariani ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Single Action ◽  
Online Planning ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Planning Processes

AbstractThe ability to perform complex sequences of movements quickly and accurately is critical for many motor skills. While training improves performance in a large variety of motor-sequence tasks, the precise mechanisms behind such improvements are poorly understood. Here we investigated the contribution of single-action selection, sequence pre-planning, online planning, and motor execution to performance in a discrete sequence production (DSP) task. Five visually-presented numbers cued a sequence of five finger presses, which had to be executed as quickly and accurately as possible. To study how sequence planning influenced sequence production, we manipulated the amount of time that participants were given to prepare each sequence by using a forced-response paradigm. Over 4 days, participants were trained on 10 sequences and tested on 80 novel sequences. Our results revealed that participants became faster in selecting individual finger presses. They also preplanned 3-4 sequence items into the future, and the speed of pre-planning improved for trained, but not for untrained, sequences. Because pre-planning capacity remained limited, the remaining sequence elements had to be planned online during sequence execution, a process that also improved with sequence-specific training. Overall, our results support the view that motor sequence learning effects are best characterized by improvements in planning processes that occur both before and concurrently with motor execution.New & NoteworthyComplex skills often require the production of sequential movements. While practice improves performance, it remains unclear how these improvements are achieved. Our findings show that learning effects in a sequence production task can be attributed to an enhanced ability to plan upcoming movements. These results shed new light on planning processes in the context of movement sequences, and have important implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie skill acquisition.

scholarly journals Reward modulates cortical representations of action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler J. Adkins ◽  
Taraz G. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Performance Enhancement ◽  
Motor Planning ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
List Type ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
On Line ◽  
Elevated Activity ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Human Participants

AbstractPeople are capable of rapid on-line improvements in performance when they are offered a reward. The neural mechanism by which this performance enhancement occurs remains unclear. We investigated this phenomenon by offering monetary reward to human participants, contingent on successful performance in a sequence production task. We found that people performed actions more quickly and accurately when they were offered large rewards. Increasing reward magnitude was associated with elevated activity throughout the brain prior to movement. Multivariate patterns of activity in these reward-responsive regions encoded information about the upcoming action. Follow-up analyses provided evidence that action decoding in pre-SMA and other motor planning areas was improved for large reward trials and successful action decoding was associated with improved performance. These results suggest that reward may enhance performance by enhancing neural representations of action used in motor planning.HighlightsReward enhances behavioral performance.Reward enhances action decoding in motor planning areas prior to movement.Enhanced action decoding coincides with improved behavioral performance.

scholarly journals A multi-representation approach to the contextual interference effect: effects of sequence length and practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem B. Verwey ◽  
David L. Wright ◽  
Maarten A. Immink
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Contextual Interference ◽  
Sequence Length ◽  
Retention Performance ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Extended Practice ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

AbstractThe present study investigated the long-term benefit of Random-Practice (RP) over Blocked-Practice (BP) within the contextual interference (CI) effect for motor learning. We addressed the extent to which motor sequence length and practice amount factors moderate the CI effect given that previous reports, often in applied research, have reported no long-term advantage from RP. Based on predictions arising from the Cognitive framework of Sequential Motor Behavior (C-SMB) and using the Discrete Sequence Production (DSP) task, two experiments were conducted to compare limited and extended practice amounts of 4- and 7-key sequences under RP and BP schedules. Twenty-four-hour delayed retention performance confirmed the C-SMB prediction that the CI-effect occurs only with short sequences that receive little practice. The benefit of RP with limited practice was associated with overnight motor memory consolidation. Further testing with single-stimulus as well as novel and unstructured (i.e., random) sequences indicated that limited practice under RP schedules enhances both reaction and chunking modes of sequence execution with the latter mode benefitting from the development of implicit and explicit forms of sequence representation. In the case of 7-key sequences, extended practice with RP and BP schedules provided for equivalent development of sequence representations. Higher explicit awareness of sequence structures was associated with faster completion of practiced but also of novel and unstructured sequences.

scholarly journals Parcellation of motor sequence representations in the human neocortex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Yokoi ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Motor Sequence ◽  
Finger Movements ◽  
Unique Representation ◽  
Human Neocortex ◽  
Model Free ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Parietal Cortices

AbstractWhile previous studies have revealed an extended network of cortical regions associated with motor sequence production, the specific role of each of these areas is still elusive. To address this issue, we designed a novel behavioural paradigm that allowed us to experimentally manipulate the structure of motor sequences representations in individual participants. We then conducted fMRI while participants executed 8 trained sequences to examine how this structure is reflected in the associated activity patterns. Both model-based and model-free approaches revealed a clear distinction between primary and non-primary motor cortices in their representational contents, with M1 specifically representing individual finger movements, and premotor and parietal cortices showing a mixture of chunk, sequence and finger transition representations. Using model-free representational parcellation, we could divide these non-primary motor cortices into separate clusters, each with a unique representation along the stimulus-to-action gradient. These results provide new insights into how human neocortex organizes movement sequences.

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