The Coding and Inter-Manual Transfer of Movement Sequences

Attila J Kovacs,Charles H Shea,Stefan Panzer

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00052

Attila J Kovacs, Charles H Shea + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00052

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Abstract

The manuscript reviews recent experiments that use inter-manual transfer and inter-manual practice paradigms to determine the coordinate system (visual–spatial or motor) used in the coding of movement sequences during physical and observational practice. The results indicated that multi-element movement sequences are more effectively coded in visual–spatial coordinates even following extended practice, while very early in practice movement sequences with only a few movement elements and relatively short durations are coded in motor coordinates. Likewise, inter-manual practice of relatively simple movement sequences show benefits of right and left limb practice that involves the same motor coordinates while the opposite is true for more complex sequences. The results suggest that the coordinate system used to code the sequence information is linked to both the task characteristics and the control processes used to produce the sequence. These findings have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of why in some conditions participants following practice with one limb or observation of one limb practice can effectively perform the task with the contralateral limb while in other (often similar) conditions cannot.

Highlights

The coding and inter-manual transfer of movement sequences How movement sequences are represented and processed in the central nervous system has garnered a great deal of experimental and theoretical attention in the last 20 years
Hikosaka et al (1999, 2002) proposed that the processing of a movement sequence is distributed in the brain in independent spatial and motor coordinate systems with different neural substrates subserving each class of processing
Visual–spatial processing is supported by circuits formed between the prefrontal and parietal cortices, anterior basal ganglia, and posterior lobe of the cerebellum while motor processing is supported by the motor cortex, midposterior basal ganglia, anterior lobe of the cerebellum, and dentate nucleus circuits

Summary

Introduction

The coding and inter-manual transfer of movement sequences How movement sequences are represented and processed in the central nervous system has garnered a great deal of experimental and theoretical attention in the last 20 years. It should be recognized that participants in the Kovacs et al (2009b) experiment where a 14-element movement sequence was practiced for 1, 4, or 12 days may have required additional practice before movement codes based on motor coordinates could develop to a point that these codes could produce the movement more effectively on the motor transfer test than that exhibited on the visual–spatial transfer test.

Results

Conclusion