Internal–External Motor Imagery and Skilled Motor Actions

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to analyze the movement-related brain macropotentials (MRBMs) recorded during the execution of two tests of motor imagery: kinaesthetic (internal) and visual (external). Recordings were compared with those obtained performing a GO/NOGO motor test. The GO test required pressure of three keys of a modified keyboard in sequence when a figure appeared in the computer screen. On NOGO trials no button had to be pressed. Motor imagery tests were an internal or kinaesthetic imagination test (IN MI) on which participants imagined performing the pressure of keyboard buttons, avoiding any real movement, and an external or visual imagination test (EX MI) on which subjects were asked to imagine seeing their finger press the buttons. With the completion of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire, the participants were assigned into two groups: high (11) and low (10) capacity of imagination. The results showed an increase in the amplitude of the MRBMs wave occurring in the prestimulus period of imagination, with respect to real motor action. In the poststimulus period, the amplitude and duration of the waves recorded during motor action were higher than those recorded during the motor imagery tests. The comparison between EX and IN MI showed a lower latency and a higher amplitude of the brain waves recorded during internal motor imagery with respect to those observed during EX MI. The experimental data confirm that real motor activity is related to higher amplitude MRBMs than motor imagery. The profile of the waves recorded during internal imagery seems to be related to a higher brain involvement compared to those recorded during external visual imagery; it suggest that the kinaesthetic process of imagination is more efficient in information processing and motor skill acquisition.

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Efficacy of Verbally Describing One’s Own Body Movement in Motor Skill Acquisition

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci9120356 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 356

Author(s):

Tsubasa Kawasaki ◽

Masashi Kono ◽

Ryosuke Tozawa

Keyword(s):

Motor Imagery ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Skill Acquisition ◽

Body Movement ◽

Upper Extremities ◽

Control Group ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Motor Skill Acquisition ◽

Motor Error ◽

And Control

The present study examined whether (a) verbally describing one’s own body movement can be potentially effective for acquiring motor skills, and (b) if the effects are related to motor imagery. The participants in this study were 36 healthy young adults (21.2 ± 0.7 years), randomly assigned into two groups (describing and control). They performed a ball rotation activity, with the describing group being asked by the examiner to verbally describe their own ball rotation, while the control group was asked to read a magazine aloud. The participants’ ball rotation performances were measured before the intervention, then again immediately after, five minutes after, and one day after. In addition, participants’ motor imagery ability (mental chronometry) of their upper extremities was measured. The results showed that the number of successful ball rotations (motor smoothness) and the number of ball drops (motor error) significantly improved in the describing group. Moreover, improvement in motor skills had a significant correlation with motor imagery ability. This suggests that verbally describing an intervention is an effective tool for learning motor skills, and that motor imagery is a potential mechanism for such verbal descriptions.

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Increasing motor skill acquisition by driving theta-gamma coupling

10.1101/2019.12.20.883926 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Haya Akkad ◽

Joshua Dupont-Hadwen ◽

Amba Frese ◽

Irena Tetkovic ◽

Liam Barrett ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Skill Acquisition ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Gamma Activity ◽

Common Mechanism ◽

Adaptive Process ◽

Motor Skill Acquisition ◽

Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽

The Brain

AbstractSkill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Hippocampal learning is closely associated with gamma activity, which is amplitude-modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity. Whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill acquisition in non-hippocampal tasks is unknown. Here we addressed this question by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex to modulate theta-gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a non-hippocampal-dependent task. We demonstrated, and then replicated, a significant improvement in skill acquisition with theta-gamma tACS, which outlasted the stimulation by an hour. Our results suggest that theta-gamma activity may be a common mechanism for learning across the brain and provides a putative novel intervention for optimising functional improvements in response to training or therapy.

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Increasing human motor skill acquisition by driving theta-gamma coupling

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.67355 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Haya Akkad ◽

Joshua Dupont-Hadwen ◽

Edward Kane ◽

Carys Evans ◽

Liam Barrett ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Skill Acquisition ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Gamma Activity ◽

Common Mechanism ◽

Motor Skill Acquisition ◽

Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽

Human Motor ◽

The Brain

Skill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Some learning paradigms, particularly in the memory domain, are closely associated with gamma activity that is amplitude-modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity, but whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill learning is unknown. Here we addressed this question by using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex to modulate theta-gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a non-hippocampal-dependent task. We demonstrated, and then replicated, a significant improvement in skill acquisition with theta-gamma tACS, which outlasted the stimulation by an hour. Our results suggest that theta-gamma activity may be a common mechanism for learning across the brain and provides a putative novel intervention for optimising functional improvements in response to training or therapy.

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Components of complex movement that can be best studied using the sequence learning paradigm

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00769.2019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 124 (3) ◽

pp. 645-647

Author(s):

Reshma Babu

Keyword(s):

Motor Skills ◽

Skill Acquisition ◽

Sequence Learning ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Learning Paradigm ◽

Skilled Movement ◽

Motor Skill Acquisition ◽

The Brain ◽

Complex Movement

The sequence learning paradigm has been used extensively to study motor skill acquisition. Skilled movement involves combining smaller elements of the movement in a particular order with certain timing; in sequence learning these are typically button presses, but other motor skills may include more complex elements. This paper reviews recent evidence suggesting the sequence learning paradigm can be used to understand how the brain abstractly represents the ordering of discrete actions in a complex movement.

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Directed motor actions and choice signalling drive cortical acetylcholine dynamics.

10.1101/2021.12.21.473699 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jing Zou ◽

Simon Trinh ◽

Andrew Erskine ◽

Miao Jing ◽

Jennifer Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Acetylcholine Release ◽

Motor Behavior ◽

Object Localization ◽

Localization Task ◽

Motor Action ◽

Reward Delivery ◽

Learning And Plasticity ◽

And Performance ◽

Motor Actions ◽

The Brain

Numerous cognitive functions including attention, learning, and plasticity are influenced by the dynamic patterns of acetylcholine release across the brain. How acetylcholine mediates these functions in cortex remains unclear, as the spatiotemporal relationship between cortical acetylcholine and behavioral events has not been precisely measured across task learning. To dissect this relationship, we quantified motor behavior and sub-second acetylcholine dynamics in primary somatosensory cortex during acquisition and performance of a tactile-guided object localization task. We found that acetylcholine dynamics were spatially homogenous and directly attributable to whisker motion and licking, rather than sensory cues or reward delivery. As task performance improved across training, acetylcholine release to the first lick in a trial became dramatically and specifically potentiated, paralleling the emergence of a choice-signalling basis for this motor action. These results show that acetylcholine dynamics in sensory cortex are driven by directed motor actions to gather information and act upon it.

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