Mutual Skill Learning and Adaptability to Others via Haptic Interaction

When learning a new skill through an unknown environment, should we practice alone, or together with another beginner, or learn from the expert? It is normally helpful to have an expert guiding through unknown environmental dynamics. The guidance from the expert is fundamentally based on mutual interactions. From the perspective of the beginner, one needs to face dual unknown dynamics of the environment and motor coordination of the expert. In a cooperative visuo-haptic motor task, we asked novice participants to bring a virtual mass onto the specified target location under an unknown external force field. The task was completed by an individual or with an expert or another novice. In addition to evaluation of the motor performance, we evaluated the adaptability of the novice participants to a new partner while attempting to achieve a common goal together. The experiment was set in five phases; baseline for skill transfer and adaptability, learning and evaluation for adaptability and skill transfer respectively. The performance of the participants was characterized by using the time to target, effort index, and length of the trajectory. Experimental results suggested that (1) peer-to-peer interactions among paired beginners enhanced the motor learning most, (2) individuals practicing on their own (learning as a single) showed better motor learning than practicing under the expert's guidance, and (3) regarding the adaptability, peer-to-peer interactions induced higher adaptability to a new partner than the novice-to-expert interactions while attempting to achieve a common goal together. Thus, we conclude that the peer-to-peer interactions under a collaborative task can realize the best motor learning of the motor skills through the new environmental dynamics, and adaptability to others in order to achieve a goal together. We suggest that the peer-to-peer learning can induce both adaptability to others and learning of motor skills through the unknown environmental dynamics under mutual interactions. On the other hand, during the peer-to-peer interactions, the novice can learn how to coordinate motion with his/her partner (even though one is a new partner), and thus, is able to learn the motor skills through new environmental dynamics.

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Predicting Motor Skill Learning in Older Adults Using Visuospatial Performance

Journal of Motor Learning and Development ◽

10.1123/jmld.2018-0017 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 38-51

Author(s):

Peiyuan Wang ◽

Frank J. Infurna ◽

Sydney Y. Schaefer

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Motor Task ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Cognitive Test ◽

Cognitive Differences ◽

Cognitive Domains ◽

Visuospatial Function ◽

Backward Elimination ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Range

Between-group comparisons of older and younger adults suggest that motor learning decreases with advancing age. However, such comparisons do not necessarily account for group differences in cognitive function, despite the co-occurrence of aging and cognitive decline. As such, cognitive differences may explain the observed age effects on motor learning. Recent work has shown that the extent to which a motor task is learned is related to visuospatial function in adults over age 65. The current study tested whether this relationship is replicable across a wider age range and with a brief, widely available cognitive test. Thirty-three adults (aged 39–89 years old) completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) prior to practicing a functional upper extremity motor task; performance on the motor task was assessed 24 hours later to quantify learning. Backward elimination stepwise linear regression identified which cognitive domains significantly predicted retention. Consistent with previous findings, only the Visuospatial/Executive subtest score predicted change in performance 24 hours later, even when accounting for participant age. Thus, the age-related declines in motor learning that have been reported previously may be explained in part by deficits in visuospatial function that can occur with advancing age.

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The Effects of Manipulating Task Difficulty and Feedback Frequency on Children’s Dart Throwing Accuracy and Consistency

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/00315125211039341 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003151252110393

Author(s):

Fatma Bahri ◽

Yousri Elghoul ◽

Liwa Masmoudi ◽

Cain C. T. Clark ◽

Jordan M. Glenn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Motor Coordination ◽

Time Pressure ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Fine Motor ◽

Retention Testing ◽

Dart Throwing ◽

Frequency Changes

In the present study we investigated the effects of manipulating task difficulty (constant vs. progressive difficulty) and frequency of knowledge of results (KR) on the accuracy and consistency of children’s performance of a novel fine motor coordination task (dart throwing). We assigned 69 right-handed physical education (PE) students ( M age = 10.73, SD = 0.89 years) to progressive (PDG) or constant difficulty (CDG) groups. PDG and CDG were each split into three subgroups who received varying KR frequency (100%KR, 50%KR, and 33%KR), creating a total of six groups. We increased difficulty in the PDG by manipulating the distance to the target (2 m, 2.37 m, and 3.56 m), while distance to the target was constant for CDG throughout the experiment (2.37 m). We conducted performance assessments during familiarization (pre-test), acquisition (post-test), and retention (retention testing) learning phases under both normal condition (NC) and a time pressure condition (TPC). Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of difficulty manipulation on skill learning under both NC and TPC. Further analyses revealed that skill learning was enhanced by progressive difficulty manipulation. However, learning was not affected by KR frequency changes. Progressive difficulty practice enhanced both accuracy and consistency, specifically at retention testing. These results suggest that motor learning in children may be enhanced by practicing with progressive increases in difficulty. PE teachers are encouraged to gradually introduce difficulty levels in motor learning tasks that require high accuracy.

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Reversed Polarity bi-tDCS over M1 during a Five Days Motor Task Training Did Not Influenced Motor Learning. A Triple-Blind Clinical Trial

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11060691 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 691

Author(s):

Laura Flix-Diez ◽

Miguel Delicado-Miralles ◽

Francisco Gurdiel-Álvarez ◽

Enrique Velasco ◽

María Galán-Calle ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trial ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Direct Current ◽

Healthy Subjects ◽

Motor Task ◽

Placebo Treatment ◽

Task Training ◽

Reversed Polarity ◽

Motor Dexterity

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been investigated as a way of improving motor learning. Our purpose was to explore the reversal bilateral tDCS effects on manual dexterity training, during five days, with the retention component measured after 5 days to determine whether somatosensory effects were produced. In this randomized, triple-blind clinical trial, 28 healthy subjects (14 women) were recruited and randomized into tDCS and placebo groups, although only 23 participants (13 women) finished the complete protocol. Participants received the real or placebo treatment during five consecutive days, while performing a motor dexterity training program of 20 min. The motor dexterity and the sensitivity of the hand were assessed pre- and post-day 1, post 5 days of training, and 5 days after training concluded. Training improved motor dexterity, but tDCS only produced a tendency to improve retention. The intervention did not produce changes in the somatosensory variables assessed. Thus, reversal bi-tDCS had no effects during motor learning on healthy subjects, but it could favor the retention of the motor skills acquired. These results do not support the cooperative inter-hemispheric model.

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Exploring pain interference with motor skill learning in humans: a protocol for a systematic review

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045841 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. e045841

Author(s):

David Matthews ◽

Edith Elgueta Cancino ◽

Deborah Falla ◽

Ali Khatibi

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Motor Skill Learning ◽

The Impact

IntroductionMotor skill learning is intrinsic to living. Pain demands attention and may disrupt non-pain-related goals such as learning new motor skills. Although rehabilitation approaches have used motor skill learning for individuals in pain, there is uncertainty on the impact of pain on learning motor skills.Methods and analysisThe protocol of this systematic review has been designed and is reported in accordance with criteria set out by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols guidelines. Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL databases; key journals; and grey literature will be searched up until March 2021, using subject-specific searches. Two independent assessors will oversee searching, screening and extracting of data and assessment of risk of bias. Both behavioural and activity-dependent plasticity outcome measures of motor learning will be synthesised and presented. The quality of evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.Ethics and disseminationNo patient data will be collected, and therefore, ethical approval was not required for this review. The results of this review will provide further understanding into the complex effects of pain and may guide clinicians in their use of motor learning strategies for the rehabilitation of individuals in pain. The results of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at scientific conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020213240.

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Dynamic Input Deep Learning Control of Artificial Avatars in a Multi-Agent Joint Motor Task

Frontiers in Robotics and AI ◽

10.3389/frobt.2021.665301 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Maria Lombardi ◽

Davide Liuzza ◽

Mario di Bernardo

Keyword(s):

Motor Coordination ◽

Motor Task ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Artificial Agents ◽

Artificial Agent ◽

Common Goal ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Joint Task ◽

Multi Agent ◽

Human Motor

In many real-word scenarios, humans and robots are required to coordinate their movements in joint tasks to fulfil a common goal. While several examples regarding dyadic human robot interaction exist in the current literature, multi-agent scenarios in which one or more artificial agents need to interact with many humans are still seldom investigated. In this paper we address the problem of synthesizing an autonomous artificial agent to perform a paradigmatic oscillatory joint task in human ensembles while exhibiting some desired human kinematic features. We propose an architecture based on deep reinforcement learning which is flexible enough to make the artificial agent interact with human groups of different sizes. As a paradigmatic coordination task we consider a multi-agent version of the mirror game, an oscillatory motor task largely used in the literature to study human motor coordination.

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The dynamics of cortical GABA in human motor learning

10.1101/341503 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

James Kolasinski ◽

Emily L. Hinson ◽

Amir P. Divanbeighi Zand ◽

Assen Rizov ◽

Uzay E. Emir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Primary Motor Cortex ◽

Motor Task ◽

Strong Support ◽

Reaction Time Task ◽

Cortical Inhibition ◽

Subsequent Learning ◽

Human Motor ◽

Local Circuitry

The ability to learn novel motor skills is both a central part of our daily lives and can provide a model for rehabilitation after a stroke. However, there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms that underpin human motor plasticity. The acquisition of new motor skills is dependent on changes in local circuitry within the primary motor cortex (M1). This reorganisation has been hypothesised to be facilitated by a decrease in local inhibition via modulation of the neurotransmitter GABA, but this link has not been conclusively demonstrated in humans. Here, we used 7T MR Spectroscopy to investigate the dynamics of GABA concentrations in human M1 during the learning of an explicit, serial reaction time task. We observed a significant reduction in GABA concentration during motor learning that was not seen in an equivalent motor task lacking a learnable sequence, nor during a passive resting task of the same duration. No change in glutamate was observed in any group. Furthermore, baseline M1 GABA was strongly predictive of the degree of subsequent learning, such that greater inhibition was associated with poorer subsequent learning. This result suggests that higher levels of cortical inhibition may present a barrier that must be surmounted in order achieve an increase in M1 excitability, and hence encoding of a new motor skill. These results provide strong support for the mechanistic role of GABAergic inhibition in motor plasticity, raising questions regarding the link between population variability in motor learning and GABA metabolism in the brain.Funding informationJ.K.:Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (204696/Z/16/Z). C.J.S.: Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Henry Dale Fellowships (102584/Z/13/Z).

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Motor Learning in Response to Different Experimental Pain Models among Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review

10.1101/2021.08.24.21262581 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Izadi ◽

Sae Franklin ◽

Marianna Bellafiore ◽

David W. Franklin

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Learning Process ◽

Motor Task ◽

Experimental Pain ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Healthy Individuals ◽

Major Question ◽

Motor Strategy ◽

Pain Models

AbstractLearning new movement patterns is a normal part of daily life, but of critical importance in both sport and rehabilitation. A major question is how different sensory signals are integrated together to give rise to motor adaptation and learning. More specifically, there is growing evidence that pain can give rise to alterations in the learning process. Despite a number of studies investigating the role of pain on the learning process, there is still no systematic review to summarize and critically assess investigations regarding this topic in the literature. Here in this systematic review, we summarize and critically evaluate studies that examined the influence of experimental pain on motor learning. Seventeen studies that exclusively assessed the effect of experimental pain models on motor learning among healthy individuals were included for this systematic review, carried out based on the PRISMA statement. The results of the review revealed there is no consensus regarding the effect of pain on the skill learning acquisition and retention. However, several studies demonstrated that participants who experienced pain continued to express a changed motor strategy to perform a motor task even one week after training under the pain condition. The results highlight a need for further studies in this area of research, and specifically to investigate whether pain has different effects on motor learning depending on the type of motor task.

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Sleep Enhances Learning of a Functional Motor Task in Young Adults

Physical Therapy ◽

10.2522/ptj.20120502 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 93 (12) ◽

pp. 1625-1635 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Alham Al-Sharman ◽

Catherine F. Siengsukon

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Motor Skills ◽

Motor Skill ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Physical Therapists ◽

Motor Task ◽

Time Of Day ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Repeated Measures Design ◽

Retention Testing

Background Sleep has been demonstrated to enhance simple motor skill learning “offline” in young adults. “Offline learning” refers to either the stabilization or the enhancement of a memory through the passage of time without additional practice. It remains unclear whether a functional motor task will benefit from sleep to produce offline motor skill enhancement. Physical therapists often teach clients functional motor skills; therefore, it is important to understand how sleep affects learning of these skills. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether sleep enhances the learning of a functional motor task. Design A prospective, cross-sectional, repeated-measures design was used. Methods Young participants who were healthy (N=24) were randomly assigned to either a sleep group or a no-sleep group. The sleep group practiced a novel walking task in the evening and underwent retention testing the following morning, and the no-sleep group practiced the task in the morning and underwent retention testing in the evening. Outcome measures included time around the walking path and spatiotemporal gait parameters. Results Only participants who slept after practicing the novel walking task demonstrated a significant offline improvement in performance. Compared with the no-sleep group, participants in the sleep group demonstrated a significant decrease in the time around the walking path, an increase in tandem velocity, an increase in tandem step length, and a decline in tandem step time. Limitations Time-of-day effect and inability to ensure a certain amount of sleep quantity and quality of participants were limitations of the study. Conclusions This study is the first to provide evidence that sleep facilitates learning clinically relevant functional motor tasks. Sleep is an important factor that physical therapists should consider when teaching clients motor skills.

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Evidence for associations between Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test and motor skill learning in older adults

10.1101/2020.09.27.315168 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jennapher Lingo VanGilder ◽

Keith R. Lohse ◽

Kevin Duff ◽

Peiyuan Wang ◽

Sydney Y. Schaefer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Upper Extremity ◽

Principal Components ◽

Motor Task ◽

Principal Component ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Motor Rehabilitation ◽

Age Related

AbstractAge-related declines in motor learning may be related to poor visuospatial function. Thus, visuospatial testing could evaluate older adults’ potential for motor learning, which has implications for geriatric motor rehabilitation. To this end, the purpose of this study was to identify which visuospatial test is most predictive of motor learning within older adults. Forty-five nondemented older adults completed six standardized visuospatial tests, followed by three weekly practice sessions on a functional upper-extremity motor task. Participants were re-tested one month later on the trained task and another untrained upper-extremity motor task to evaluate the durability and generalizability of motor learning, respectively. Principal component analysis first reduced the dimensions of the visuospatial battery to two principal components for inclusion in a mixed-effects model that assessed one-month follow-up performance as a function of baseline performance and the principal components. Of the two components, only one was related to one-month follow-up. Factor loadings and post hoc analyses suggested that of the six visuospatial tests, the Rey-Osterrieth test (visual construction and memory) was related to one-month follow-up of the trained and untrained tasks. Thus, it may be plausible that older adults’ long-term motor learning capacity could be evaluated using the Rey-Osterrieth test, which would be feasible to administer prior to motor rehabilitation to indicate risk of non-responsiveness to therapy.

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Motor Learning of Compatible and Incompatible Visuomotor Maps

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892901564270 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 217-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Scott T. Grafton ◽

Joanna Salidis ◽

Daniel B. Willingham

Keyword(s):

Motor Learning ◽

Target Location ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Task Demands ◽

Skill Learning ◽

Motor Output ◽

Precentral Gyrus ◽

Visually Guided ◽

Positron Emission ◽

Motor Areas

Brain imaging studies demonstrate increasing activity in limb motor areas during early motor skill learning, consistent with functional reorganization occurring at the motor output level. Nevertheless, behavioral studies reveal that visually guided skills can also be learned with respect to target location or possibly eye movements. The current experiments examined motor learning under compatible and incompatible perceptual/motor conditions to identify brain areas involved in different perceptual-motor transformations. Subjects tracked a continuously moving target with a joystick-controlled cursor. The target moved in a repeating sequence embedded within random movements to block sequence awareness. Psychophysical studies of behavioral transfer from incompatible (joystick and cursor moving in opposite directions) to compatible tracking established that incompatible learning was occurring with respect to target location. Positron emission tomography (PET) functional imaging of compatible learning identified increasing activity throughout the precentral gyrus, maximal in the arm area. Incompatible learning also led to increasing activity in the precentral gyrus, maximal in the putative frontal eye fields. When the incompatible task was switched to a compatible response and the previously learned sequence was reintroduced, there was an increase in arm motor cortex. The results show that learning-related increases of brain activity are dynamic, with recruitment of multiple motor output areas, contingent on task demands. Visually guided motor sequences can be linked to either oculomotor or arm motor areas. Rather than identifying changes of motor output maps, the data from imaging experiments may better reflect modulation of inputs to multiple motor areas.

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