scholarly journals Easy Task and Choice: Motivational Interventions Facilitate Motor Skill Learning in Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Seyyed Mohammadreza Mousavi ◽  
Takehiro Iwatsuki
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skill ◽  
Autonomy Support ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Support Intervention ◽  
Motivational Interventions ◽  
Task Success ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Perceived Choice ◽  
Main Effects

Expectancies for success and autonomy support have been shown to facilitate motor learning and enhance motor performance. The purpose of the study was to examine whether we replicated (a) enhanced expectancies and autonomy support intervention enhanced motor skill learning in children, and (b) identified the underlying psychological mechanism. Sixty children kicked soccer balls with their dominant leg to a squared area target. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four groups: enhanced expectancies and autonomy support (EE/AS), enhanced expectancies (EE), autonomy support (AS), or control (CON) groups. Participants learning the skill were or were not provided enhanced expectation instructions by making the task success easier and provided an opportunity to choose one of the three colored balls during their practice. Two days later, they performed retention and transfer tests. Results indicated that the EE/AS group had the highest scores, with main effects of autonomy support being significant and enhanced expectancies being marginally significant for the retention test and significant for the transfer test. The EE/AS group had the highest self-efficacy and perceived choice scores. Therefore, having high expectancies for success and being autonomous were important ingredients for facilitating motor skill learning in children.

scholarly journals Reward boosts reinforcement-based motor learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Vassiliadis ◽  
Gerard Derosiere ◽  
Cecile Dubuc ◽  
Aegryan Lete ◽  
Frederic Crevecoeur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Rehabilitation Protocols ◽  
Motor Component ◽  
Task Success ◽  
Level Of Motivation

AbstractBesides relying heavily on sensory and reinforcement feedback, motor skill learning may also depend on the level of motivation experienced during training. Yet, how motivation by reward modulates motor learning remains unclear. In 90 healthy subjects, we investigated the net effect of motivation by reward on motor learning while controlling for the sensory and reinforcement feedback received by the participants. Reward improved motor skill learning beyond performance-based reinforcement feedback. Importantly, the beneficial effect of reward involved a specific potentiation of reinforcement-related adjustments in motor commands, which concerned primarily the most relevant motor component for task success and persisted on the following day in the absence of reward. We propose that the long-lasting effects of motivation on motor learning may entail a form of associative learning resulting from the repetitive pairing of the reinforcement feedback and reward during training, a mechanism that may be exploited in future rehabilitation protocols.

The Effect of Aimed Movements in Sequenced Motor Skill Learning Motor Skill Acquisition Using Aiming and the SRTT

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle V. Thompson ◽  
Janet L. Utschig ◽  
Mikaela K. Vaughan ◽  
Marc V. Richard ◽  
Benjamin A. Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Skill Acquisition

scholarly journals Football Juggling Learning Alters the Working Memory and White Matter Integrity in Early Adulthood: A Randomized Controlled Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3843
Author(s):  
Yifan Shi ◽  
Kelong Cai ◽  
Hao Zhu ◽  
Xiaoxiao Dong ◽  
Xuan Xiong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Motor Skill ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
White Matter Integrity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Experimental Group

Cross-sectional studies suggest that motor skill learning is associated with working memory (WM) and white matter integrity (WMI). However, it has not been established whether motor skill learning improves WM performance, and information on its neural mechanisms have not been clearly elucidated. Therefore, this study compared WM and WMI across time points prior to and following football juggling learning, in early adulthood (18–20 years old), relative to a control group. Study participants in the experimental group were subjected to football juggling for 10 weeks while participants in the control category went on with their routine life activities for the same period of time and were not involved in the learning-related activities. Data on cognitive measurements and that from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were collected before and after learning. There was a significant improvement in WM performance of the experimental group after motor learning, although no improvement was observed in the control group. Additionally, after learning, DTI data revealed a significant increase in functional anisotropy (FA) in the genu of corpus callosum (GOCC) and the right anterior corona radiata (R.ACR) in the experimental group. Moreover, the better WM associated with football juggling learning was correlated to a higher FA. Mediation analysis suggested that FA in the GOCC acts as a mediation variable between football juggling learning and WM. These findings show that motor skill learning improves the WM and remodels WMI in early adulthood. With a particular emphasis on the importance of WMI in motor skill learning and WM, this study also revealed the possible neural mechanisms mediated by WMI.

scholarly journals Motor-Skill Learning Is Dependent on Astrocytic Activity

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragunathan Padmashri ◽  
Anand Suresh ◽  
Michael D. Boska ◽  
Anna Dunaevsky
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skill ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Skill Training ◽  
Long Term Potentiation ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Metabolic Inhibitor ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Reaching Task ◽  
Learning Impairment

Motor-skill learning induces changes in synaptic structure and function in the primary motor cortex through the involvement of a long-term potentiation- (LTP-) like mechanism. Although there is evidence that calcium-dependent release of gliotransmitters by astrocytes plays an important role in synaptic transmission and plasticity, the role of astrocytes in motor-skill learning is not known. To test the hypothesis that astrocytic activity is necessary for motor-skill learning, we perturbed astrocytic function using pharmacological and genetic approaches. We find that perturbation of astrocytes either by selectively attenuating IP3R2 mediated astrocyte Ca2+signaling or using an astrocyte specific metabolic inhibitor fluorocitrate (FC) results in impaired motor-skill learning of a forelimb reaching-task in mice. Moreover, the learning impairment caused by blocking astrocytic activity using FC was rescued by administration of the gliotransmitter D-serine. The learning impairments are likely caused by impaired LTP as FC blocked LTP in slices and prevented motor-skill training-induced increases in synaptic AMPA-type glutamate receptorin vivo. These results support the conclusion that normal astrocytic Ca2+signaling during a reaching task is necessary for motor-skill learning.

Distinguishable Brain Activation Networks for Short- and Long-Term Motor Skill Learning

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 512-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Floyer-Lea ◽  
P. M. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skill ◽  
Isometric Force ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Motor Skill Learning ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Learning Stage ◽  
The Right

The acquisition of a new motor skill is characterized first by a short-term, fast learning stage in which performance improves rapidly, and subsequently by a long-term, slower learning stage in which additional performance gains are incremental. Previous functional imaging studies have suggested that distinct brain networks mediate these two stages of learning, but direct comparisons using the same task have not been performed. Here we used a task in which subjects learn to track a continuous 8-s sequence demanding variable isometric force development between the fingers and thumb of the dominant, right hand. Learning-associated changes in brain activation were characterized using functional MRI (fMRI) during short-term learning of a novel sequence, during short-term learning after prior, brief exposure to the sequence, and over long-term (3 wk) training in the task. Short-term learning was associated with decreases in activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, posterior parietal, primary motor, and cerebellar cortex, and with increased activation in the right cerebellar dentate nucleus, the left putamen, and left thalamus. Prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar cortical changes were not apparent with short-term learning after prior exposure to the sequence. With long-term learning, increases in activity were found in the left primary somatosensory and motor cortex and in the right putamen. Our observations extend previous work suggesting that distinguishable networks are recruited during the different phases of motor learning. While short-term motor skill learning seems associated primarily with activation in a cortical network specific for the learned movements, long-term learning involves increased activation of a bihemispheric cortical-subcortical network in a pattern suggesting “plastic” development of new representations for both motor output and somatosensory afferent information.

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