Motor Skill Learning Research Articles

Investigation of the Relationship Between Hand, Eye and Foot Dominance and Motor Learning Skills in Healthy Youth

Dominantlık durumunun genetik ve çevresel faktörler arasındaki çok yönlü etkileşimle ortaya çıktığı düşünülmektedir. Motor öğrenme ise hareket yeteneğinde tecrübe veya pratikle oluşan kalıcı değişimleri içeren bir süreci ifade eder. Bu çalışmanın amacı sağlıklı gençlerde el göz ve ayak dominantlığı ile motor öğrenme becerisi arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesidir. Araştırmaya 107 sağlıklı genç birey dahil edildi. Ayrıca veri toplamak için “Edinburg El Tercih Anketi”, “Yenilenmiş Waterloo Ayak Tercihi Anketi”, “Miles ve Ports Lateralizasyon Testi” ve “İz Sürme Testi” kullanıldı. Dominant olan gözlerin karşılaştırılması Mann-Whitney U testi kullanılarak; dominant olan el ve ayakların karşılaştırılması Kruskal-Wallis H testi kullanılarak incelendi. Dominant olan el, göz ve ayaklar arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemek amacıyla logaritmik doğrusal model uygulanarak; ana etkiler ve ikili etkileşimlerin önemli olduğu (p<0.001; p<0.01), üçlü etkileşimin önemli olmadığı belirlendi (p=0.993). Dominant olan el, ayak ve gözler arasında İz Sürme Testinin skorları açısından fark olmadığı belirlendi (p>0.05). Yapılan çalışma sonucunda sağlıklı gençlerde el, göz ve ayak dominantlığı ile motor öğrenme becerisi arasında ilişki olmadığı belirlendi. Bununla birlikte el dominantlığı ile ayak dominantlığı arasında ve göz dominantlığı ile ayak dominantlığı arasında ilişki olduğu; el dominantlığı ile göz dominantlığı arasında ilişki olmadığı belirlendi. Çalışmanın sonuçları el, ayak ve göz dominatlık durumunun motor öğrenmeyi etkilemediğini desteklemektedir.

Motor training promotes both synaptic and intrinsic plasticity of layer V pyramidal neurons in the primary motor cortex.

Here we examined motor training-induced synaptic and intrinsic plasticity of layer V pyramidal neurons in primary motor cortex. The training reduced presynaptic GABA release in early phase, but strengthened AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory synapses in later phase: acquired motor performance after training correlated with the strength of excitatory synapses rather than inhibitory synapses. As to the intrinsic property, the training transiently decreased firing rate in early phase, but returned to pre-training levels in later phase. Western-blot analysis detected decreased phosphorylation of Ser408-409 in GABAA receptor β3 subunits in acute phase, and increased phosphorylation of Ser831 in AMPA receptor GluA1 subunits in later phase. Live-imaging analysis of Thy1-YFP transgenic mice showed rapid and long-term spine plasticity in M1 layer V neurons, suggesting training-induced increases in self-entropy per spine. Layer V neurons in primary motor cortex (M1) are important for motor skill learning. Since pretreatment of either CNQX or APV in rats M1 layer V impaired rotor rod learning, we analyzed training-induced synaptic plasticity by whole-cell patch-clamp technique in acute brain slices. One-day trained rats showed a decrease in small inhibitory postsynaptic current (mIPSC) frequency and an increase in the paired-pulse ratio of evoked IPSCs, suggesting a transient decrease in presynaptic GABA release in early phase. Two-days trained rats showed an increase in miniature excitatory postsynaptic current (mEPSC) amplitudes/frequency and elevated AMPA/NMDA ratios, suggesting a long-term strengthening of AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory synapses. Importantly, rotor rod performance in trained rats was correlated with the mean mEPSC amplitude and the frequency obtained from that animal. In current-clamp analysis, 1-day-trained rats transiently decreased current-induced firing rate, while 2-day-trained rats returned to pre-training levels, suggesting a dynamic changes in intrinsic properties. Furthermore, western-blot analysis of layer V detected decreased phosphorylation of Ser408-409 in GABAA receptor β3 subunits in 1-day trained rats, and increased phosphorylation of Ser831 in AMPA receptor GluA1 subunits in 2-days trained rats. Finally, live-imaging analysis of Thy1-YFP transgenic mice showed that the training rapidly recruited a substantial number of spines for long-term plasticity in M1 layer V neurons. Taken together, these results indicate that motor training induces complex and diverse plasticity in M1 layer V pyramidal neurons. Abstract figure legend Schematic of motor training and rapid spine dynamics in M1 layer V neurons. Exercise training promotes physiological and morphological spine diversity. Red: glutamate and AMPA receptors. Blue: GABA and GABAA receptors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Accounting for the valley of recovery during post-stroke rehabilitation training via a model-based analysis of macaque manual dexterity.

True recovery, in which a stroke patient regains the same precise motor skills observed in prestroke conditions, is the fundamental goal of rehabilitation training. However, a transient drop in task performance during rehabilitation training after stroke, observed in human clinical outcome as well as in both macaque and squirrel monkey retrieval data, might prevent smooth transitions during recovery. This drop, i.e., recovery valley, often occurs during the transition from compensatory skill to precision skill. Here, we sought computational mechanisms behind such transitions and recovery. Analogous to motor skill learning, we considered that the motor recovery process is composed of spontaneous recovery and training-induced recovery. Specifically, we hypothesized that the interaction of these multiple skill update processes might determine profiles of the recovery valley. A computational model of motor recovery was developed based on a state-space model of motor learning that incorporates a retention factor and interaction terms for training-induced recovery and spontaneous recovery. The model was fit to previously reported macaque motor recovery data where the monkey practiced precision grip skills after a lesion in the sensorimotor area in the cortex. Multiple computational models and the effects of each parameter were examined by model comparisons based on information criteria and sensitivity analyses of each parameter. Both training-induced and spontaneous recoveries were necessary to explain the behavioral data. Since these two factors contributed following logarithmic function, the training-induced recovery were effective only after spontaneous biological recovery had developed. In the training-induced recovery component, the practice of the compensation also contributed to recovery of the precision grip skill as if there is a significant generalization effect of learning between these two skills. In addition, a retention factor was critical to explain the recovery profiles. We found that spontaneous recovery, training-induced recovery, retention factors, and interaction terms are crucial to explain recovery and recovery valley profiles. This simulation-based examination of the model parameters provides suggestions for effective rehabilitation methods to prevent the recovery valley, such as plasticity-promoting medications, brain stimulation, and robotic rehabilitation technologies.

Juggling on the moon: A VR system for complex motor skill learning

Juggling on the moon: A VR system for complex motor skill learning

The influence of training with free-fight means on motor skills, sensory functioning and quality of life of a child with autism (unique case)

The motor sphere of children with autism is characterized by the presence of stereotyped movements, difficulties in the formation of objective actions and household skills, and violations of fine and gross motor skills.
 The aim of the work was to establish the influence of adaptive training with elements of free-fight on the development of motor skills, sensory profile and quality of life of a child with autism.
 A 12-year-old boy A. with a diagnosis of childhood autism, social maladaptation (disability subgroup A) was chosen for the experiment. The child does not speak, cannot read or write, has impaired coordination of movements (walking on tiptoes, motor stereotypies, motor disinhibition), insufficient understanding of language. Somatically, the boy is healthy, loves motor activity.
 An assessment of the child's sensory functioning was carried out according to the Short Sensory Profile method, developed and recognized by The Psychological Corporation (USA), a survey of parents about the child's quality of life before the start of training and after a forced break in training, in addition, an assessment of the quality of direct blows with the hand and foot was carried out punching bags at each session.
 During the research period, the boy A. performed, under the guidance of a coach, exercises for coordination of movements ("obstacle course"), interaction with the coach (gymnastic exercises, various available games with a ball), exercises for developing the strength of various muscle groups (work with "Bulgarian bag", dumbbells) and special free-fight exercises (hits with hands and feet on punching bags and a dummy).
 A significant improvement of the child's sensory functioning was established, namely all types of sensitivity, except auditory filtering and sensitivity to taste and smell. The child's parents noted a significant increase in the quality of life of both the boy himself and the entire family. Significant progress was observed in learning the technique and the success of the boy's performance of special free-fight exercises. Adaptive training with elements of free fight served as a significant sensory stimulus for a child with autism, contributed to the learning of motor skills, and improved the quality of life of the family.

Corticospinal neurons from motor and somatosensory cortices exhibit different temporal activity dynamics during motor learning.

The ability to learn motor skills implicates an improvement in accuracy, speed and consistency of movements. Motor control is related to movement execution and involves corticospinal neurons (CSp), which are broadly distributed in layer 5B of the motor and somatosensory cortices. CSp neurons innervate the spinal cord and are functionally diverse. However, whether CSp activity differs between different cortical areas throughout motor learning has been poorly explored. Given the importance and interaction between primary motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortices related to movement, we examined the functional roles of CSp neurons in both areas. We induced the expression of GCaMP7s calcium indicator to perform photometric calcium recordings from layer 5B CSp neurons simultaneously in M1 and S1 cortices and track their activity while adult mice learned and performed a cued lever-press task. We found that during early learning sessions, the population calcium activity of CSp neurons in both cortices during movement did not change significantly. In late learning sessions the peak amplitude and duration of calcium activity CSp neurons increased in both, M1 and S1 cortices. However, S1 and M1 CSp neurons display a different temporal dynamic during movements that occurred when animals learned the task; both M1 and S1 CSp neurons activate before movement initiation, however, M1 CSp neurons continue active during movement performance, reinforcing the idea of the diversity of the CSp system and suggesting that CSp neuron activity in M1 and S1 cortices throughout motor learning have different functional roles for sensorimotor integration.

Feedback for Promoting Motor Skill Learning in Physical Education: A Trial Sequential Meta-Analysis.

Feedback can be used as an effective teaching method in physical education (PE) to promote students' learning of motor skills. However, there is no objective synthetic evidence to support the role of feedback in PE. Additionally, the effect of each feedback subtype on students' motor skill learning is still unclear. This study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA) to evaluate the effects of feedback and feedback subtypes on students' motor skill learning. Nine databases were searched through September 2022 to identify appropriate literature. Meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4 software and TSA was performed using TSA version 0.9.5.10 beta software. Fifteen studies were included. Feedback significantly improved students' motor skill learning in PE (SMD 0.47; 95% CI 0.01, 0.93; Z = 2.02; p = 0.04). The TSA confirmed the result of the meta-analysis. Sensitivity analyses showed that the subtypes of feedback, including visual feedback, visual combined verbal feedback, visual self-model, visual expert model, corrective feedback, and teacher-regulated feedback, significantly improved students' learning of motor skills. In contrast, verbal, evaluative, and informational feedback did not produce changes in motor skill learning. Both complex and simple motor skills were improved by feedback. The use of feedback in PE benefits motor skill learning, regardless of whether the motor skills are complex or simple.

Motor skills and cognitive benefits in children and adolescents: Relationship, mechanism and perspectives.

There is a strong interaction between motor skills and cognitive benefits for children and young people. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between motor skill types and their development and the cognitive benefits of children and adolescents. In turn, on this basis, it proposes pathways and mechanisms by which motor skills improve cognition, and provide a basis for subsequent teaching of skills that follow the laws of brain cognitive development. This paper summarizes the research on the relationship between different types of motor skills and their development and cognitive benefits of children and adolescents. Based on these relationships, pathways, and mechanisms for motor skills to improve cognition are tentatively proposed. There is an overall pattern of "open > closed, strategy > interception, sequence > continuous" between motor skill types and the cognitive benefits of children and adolescents. Long-term motor skill learning practice is accompanied by increased cognitive benefits as skill proficiency increases. The dynamic interaction between motor skills and physical activity exposes children and adolescents to environmental stimuli and interpersonal interactions of varying complexity, promoting the development of agility, coordination and cardiorespiratory fitness, enhancing their motor experience, which in turn improves brain structure and functional activity. Motor skills training promote cognitive efficiency in children and adolescents. Motor skill interventions that are open-ended, strategic and sequential in nature are more effective. Environmental stimuli, interpersonal interaction, agility, coordination, and cardiorespiratory fitness can be considered as skill attribute moderators of motor skills to improve cognition.

Bridge2Practice: an interactive skills training e-tool which improves learning outcomes in university health students

Given the challenges with COVID-19 in the past two and a half years, clinical programs have struggled to find placements where students can get hands on experience assessing and working with real patients. Placements have switched to tele-practice or simulations each of which has a range of limitations. A key learning objective in healthcare programs is that students will be able to develop procedural skills, so reduced placement availability impacts students’ opportunity to practice these skills. Learning procedural skills also poses a problem for time-poor educators who must provide feedback to students and opportunities for students to practice in the classroom environment. An online learning tool aims to bridge these learning gaps and address the abovementioned educational challenges. Bridge2Practice (B2P), created by the School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, enables health students to practice identification of a range of specific features of clinical interventions and receive immediate feedback. B2P uses patient recordings for the learner to identify features of clinical interactions and procedures and subsequently receive immediate feedback and comparison of their assessment to that of their peers and experts. As such, it utilizes consensus learning and harnesses aspects of successful coaching such as reflection and explicit practice (Cushion et al., 2012; Cushion et al., 2003; Madill et al., 2020), to support the learning and teaching of motor and procedural skills to patients in clinical settings. B2P is freely available 24/7 and is utilised by over 7000 users from more than 14 institutions around the world for research and teaching purposes. It is currently used to support skill development in physiotherapy, sports science and speech pathology students and is integrated with online only and blended-learning educational programs. B2P incorporates features of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Dinmore, 2014), an approach to learning that involves embedding engaging and authentic learning opportunities into teaching and assessment using multiple modes of engagement. B2P also optimises relevance, value and authenticity, fostering collaboration and community and increasing mastery-orientated feedback. In a case example of clinical skills of entry-level speech pathology students, we will show B2P’s flexibility in supporting learning objectives and skill development based on a UDL perspective of learning. Students watch and rate a range of clinical videos in B2P to identify features relevant for clinical practice and receive immediate feedback of their ratings compared to experts’ and other students’ ratings of the same sample. This immediate feedback enables students to see the difference between novice and expert ratings, and observe the formation of a consensus answer by the student group. The benefits of practice via B2P is evidenced by a positive correlation between students who engaged with B2P and improved assessment results. Furthermore, B2P was of benefit to staff in saving them thousands of hours of marking and feedback. In the future, B2P will continue to be implemented to promote student engagement in skill development across a range of allied health settings with the capacity for application in other disciplines where interactive skill-based practice is required.

Limited transfer and retention of locomotor adaptations from virtual reality obstacle avoidance to the physical world

Locomotor training based in virtual reality (VR) is promising for motor skill learning, with transfer of VR skills in turn required to benefit daily life locomotion. This study aimed to assess whether VR-adapted obstacle avoidance can be transferred to a physical obstacle and whether such transfer is retained after 1 week. Thirty-two young adults were randomly divided between two groups. A control group (CG) merely walked on a treadmill and an intervention group (IG) trained crossing 50 suddenly-appearing virtual obstacles. Both groups crossed three physical obstacles (transfer task) immediately after training (T1) and 1 week later (T2, transfer retention). Repeated practice in VR led to a decrease in toe clearance along with greater ankle plantarflexion and knee extension. IG participants crossed physical obstacles with a lower toe clearance compared to CG but revealed significantly higher values compared to the VR condition. VR adaptation was fully retained over 1 week. For physical obstacle avoidance there were differences between toe clearance of the third obstacle at T1 and the first obstacle at T2, indicating only partial transfer retention. We suggest that perception–action coupling, and thus sensorimotor coordination, may differ between VR and the physical world, potentially limiting retained transfer between conditions.

Learning-related contraction of gray matter in rodent sensorimotor cortex is associated with adaptive myelination.

From observations in rodents, it has been suggested that the cellular basis of learning-dependent changes, detected using structural MRI, may be increased dendritic spine density, alterations in astrocyte volume, and adaptations within intracortical myelin. Myelin plasticity is crucial for neurological function, and active myelination is required for learning and memory. However, the dynamics of myelin plasticity and how it relates to morphometric-based measurements of structural plasticity remains unknown. We used a motor skill learning paradigm in male mice to evaluate experience-dependent brain plasticity by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in longitudinal MRI, combined with a cross-sectional immunohistochemical investigation. Whole-brain VBM revealed nonlinear decreases in gray matter volume (GMV) juxtaposed to nonlinear increases in white matter volume (WMV) within GM that were best modeled by an asymptotic time course. Using an atlas-based cortical mask, we found nonlinear changes with learning in primary and secondary motor areas and in somatosensory cortex. Analysis of cross-sectional myelin immunoreactivity in forelimb somatosensory cortex confirmed an increase in myelin immunoreactivity followed by a return towards baseline levels. Further investigations using quantitative confocal microscopy confirmed these changes specifically to the length density of myelinated axons. The absence of significant histological changes in cortical thickness suggests that nonlinear morphometric changes are likely due to changes in intracortical myelin for which morphometric WMV in somatosensory cortex significantly correlated with myelin immunoreactivity. Together, these observations indicate a nonlinear increase of intracortical myelin during learning and support the hypothesis that myelin is a component of structural changes observed by VBM during learning.

Attention and Motor skill improvements in Mild Cognitive Impairment patients using COSMA Application

Serious games have grown rapidly to provide cognitive stimulation for people with cognitive impairment. In this endeavour, we have created the COSMA games. In this two-arm study with patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), we investigated information processing speed and cognitive skills with 28 days of use of COSMA games, a brain stimulation gaming platform. We measured reaction times during neuropsychological assessment with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery and the COSMA games. Results showed that people with MCI who played COSMA for 28 days at home were faster in 48% of the COSMA games and the Control group which played only during the laboratory visits was faster in 20% of the COSMA games at the end of the study. Overall, these outcomes showed evidence that motor skill practice and learning retention are possible in people with MCI and that these skills are still able to improve with the regular practice of the COSMA games.

The performance of an electromyography‐based deep neural network classifier for external and internal focus instructions

SummaryExternal focusing (directs focus to apparatus, environment or the effect of the action) enhances motor skill learning and reduces muscular activity compared to internal focusing (leads focus to the movement or the action itself). Nevertheless, in case of electromyography (EMG) based systems such as prosthetic arms, robotic controllers, and robot‐assisted musculoskeletal rehabilitation, low EMG activity is not preferred. This present study was based on classifying attentional focus‐based EMG signals using deep neural networks. Here DB4 and HAAR wavelet coefficients of the participants' signals were extracted to be used as inputs to the proposed DNNs. The accuracy rate results found to be for DB4 and HAAR 99.07% and 99.54%, respectively. Although in previous studies, attentional focusing types could be classified at EMG activity level using artificial neural networks, our DNN results would be more reliable to be used as alternate inputs to EMG‐based control mechanisms. Besides, this study also provides the potential advantages of internal focusing especially in musculoskeletal rehabilitation sessions. Verbal instructions via internal focus might lead physicians to plan effective muscular rehabilitation treatment for patients who has suffered a stroke or a disorder of lower or upper limb extremities.

Memory decay and generalization following distinct motor learning mechanisms.

Motor skill learning is considered to arise out of contributions from multiple learning mechanisms, including error-based learning (EBL), use-dependent learning (UDL), and reinforcement learning (RL). These learning mechanisms exhibit dissociable roles and engage different neural circuits during skill acquisition. However, it remains largely unknown how a newly formed motor memory acquired through each learning mechanism decays over time and whether distinct learning mechanisms produce different generalization patterns. Here, we used variants of reaching paradigms that dissociated these learning mechanisms to examine the time course of memory decay following each learning and the generalization patterns of each learning. We found that motor memories acquired through these learning mechanisms decayed as a function of time. Notably, 15 min, 6 h, and 24 h after acquisition, the memory of EBL decayed much greater than that of RL. The memory acquired through UDL faded away within a few minutes. Motor memories formed through EBL and RL for given movement directions generalized to untrained movement directions, with the generalization of EBL being greater than that of RL. In contrast, motor memory of UDL could not generalize to untrained movement directions. These results suggest that distinct learning mechanisms exhibit different patterns of memory decay and generalization.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Motor skill learning is likely to involve error-based learning, use-dependent plasticity, and operant reinforcement. Here, we showed that these dissociable learning mechanisms exhibited distinct patterns of memory decay and generalization. With a better understanding of the characteristics of these learning mechanisms, it becomes possible to regulate each learning process separately to improve neurological rehabilitation.

The effect of gamified robot-enhanced training on motor performance in chronic stroke survivors

Task-specific training constitutes a core element for evidence-based rehabilitation strategies targeted at improving upper extremity activity after stroke. Its combination with additional treatment strategies and neurotechnology-based solutions could further improve patients' outcomes. Here, we studied the effect of gamified robot-assisted upper limb motor training on motor performance, skill learning, and transfer with respect to a non-gamified control condition with a group of chronic stroke survivors. The results suggest that a gamified training strategy results in more controlled motor performance during the training phase, which is characterized by a higher accuracy (lower deviance), higher smoothness (lower jerk), but slower speed. The responder analyses indicated that mildly impaired patients benefited most from the gamification approach. In conclusion, gamified robot-assisted motor training, which is personalized to the individual capabilities of a patient, constitutes a promising investigational strategy for further improving motor performance after a stroke.

운동학습의 운동처리과정과 운동학습 전략에 대한 이해

The human has the capacity to learn motor skill through practice and experience. The acquisition and long-term memory of motor skills play a fundamental role in our daily lives. Skills such as writing, riding a bicycle or playing tennis are all acquired through repetitive practice. Motor learning refers to the brain information process by which movements are executed more quickly and accurately with practice. In particular, the cerebral cortex plays an important role in motor skill learning. So, this article reviewed the basic principles underlying the neural basis of motor skill learning and a role of cerebral cortical in the motor learning process. In addition, the review focuses on factors that have been shown to enhance the learning of motor skills. Thus, this article contribute to the understanding of information process in cerebral cortex and motor learning strategy in motor skill and can be used guidelines for choosing effective motor learning method for individuals.

Is video creation more effective than self-exercise in motor skill learning?

Parallel to the tremendous growth and expansion of video technology, it is easy and enjoyable for students to create a video as a learning activity. However, most previous studies primarily focused on declarative knowledge learning (e.g., language learning, science learning) rather than motor skill learning. The current study aimed to investigate whether creating and sharing a video with classmates would be more effective than merely creating a video and self-exercise to learn a motor skill in terms of intrinsic motivation, perseverance in learning, learning satisfaction, and roller-skating skill. Partially consistent with our hypothesis, we found that creating and sharing a video with classmates increased students' intrinsic motivation, perseverance in motor tasks, and learning satisfaction, but not roller-skating skill, followed by merely creating a video and then self-exercise. The findings have an important implication for motor skills learning: during teaching motor skills, teachers can use encourage students to create and share a video with classmates as a homework activity to increase students' intrinsic motivation, perseverance in motor tasks, and learning satisfaction.

Control becomes habitual early on when learning a novel motor skill.

When people perform the same task repeatedly, their behavior becomes habitual, or inflexible to changes in the goals or structure of a task. Although habits have been hypothesized to be a key aspect of motor skill acquisition, there has been little empirical work investigating the relationship between skills and habits. To better understand this relationship, we examined whether and when people's behavior would become habitual as they learned a challenging new motor skill: maneuvering an on-screen cursor with a nonintuitive bimanual mapping from hand to cursor position. After participants practiced using this mapping for up to 10 days, we altered the mapping between the hands and the cursor to assess whether participants could flexibly adjust their behavior or would habitually persist in performing the task the way they had originally learned. We found that participants' behavior became habitual within 2 days of practice, at which point they were still relatively unskilled. Further practice led to improved skill but did not alter the strength of habitual behavior. These data demonstrate that motor skills become habitual after relatively little training but can nevertheless further improve with practice. We suggest that building habits early in learning may be a crucial step in acquiring new motor skills.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Habits and motor skills have often been thought to be deeply related, but very few studies have empirically examined the relationship between the two. We present evidence that habits emerge early in learning, long before a motor skill has been fully learned. Our results suggest that habits may play an integral role in the learning and performance of motor skills from even the early stages of acquiring a new skill.

The impact of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of primary motor cortex on motor learning in older adults with low levels of activity

Background/aims Older adults with different physical activity levels have often demonstrated individual differences in motor performance and learning. Serial reaction time task training and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the primary motor cortex were used in this study to evaluate how these interventions affected motor learning in older adults with low activity levels. Methods In this randomised controlled trial, 28 healthy, right-handed, older adults with low activity levels, with a mean age of 69.92 years, were randomly allocated to an anodal transcranial direct current stimulation group (n=14) or sham transcranial direct current stimulation group (n=14), based on a simple non-probability sampling method. The experimental group was exposed to 20 minutes of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the motor cortex, using a tDCS device, alongside eight sequenced or randomised blocks of serial reaction time task activities, for 5 consecutive days. In the control group, the tDCS device was automatically switched off after 1 minute. To assess implicit motor learning, the response time and error rate of two sequenced blocks of serial reaction time task activities were collected before, immediately following, 1 day and 1 week after the completion of the intervention. Results Immediately following the end of the intervention, at day 5, the mean response time and error rate were 925.09 and 2.55 in the experimental group, and 1016.52 and 4.10 in the control group. At 1 day after the completion of the intervention, the mean response time and error rates were 927.40 and 3.03 in the experimental group and 1021.91 and 4.34 in the control group. At 1 week after the completion of the intervention, the mean response time and error rates were 942.26 and 3.63 in the experimental group and 1050.08 and 5.11 in the control group. These findings indicate that response time and error rate were significantly decreased in both stimulation groups at different time points (P<0.001). At the same time, there were no significant differences in the response time and error rate between the two groups at different time points: immediately (P=0.07, P=0.31), 1 day (P=0.06, P=0.41) and 1 week (P=0.04, P=0.35) after the completion of the intervention respectively. Conclusions Serial reaction time task training, with or without applying anodal transcranial direct current stimulation, can improve motor learning in low-activity older adults. Therefore, it appears that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation did not affect or improve motor learning in older adults with low motor activity. Motor learning training can be used alone as a practical and helpful intervention to improve performance and implicit motor skill learning with long-lasting effects in older adults with low levels of activity.

Muscle Interface Technology for Augmenting Human Capabilities through Efficient Motor Skill Learning by Electrical Muscle Stimulation

Muscle Interface Technology for Augmenting Human Capabilities through Efficient Motor Skill Learning by Electrical Muscle Stimulation