Two studies examined EEG co-activation (coherence) between the verbal-analytical (T3) and motor planning (Fz) regions during a golf putting task. In Study 1, participants with a strong propensity to consciously monitor and control their... more
Two studies examined EEG co-activation (coherence) between the verbal-analytical (T3) and motor planning (Fz) regions during a golf putting task. In Study 1, participants with a strong propensity to consciously monitor and control their movements, determined psychometrically by high scores on a movement specific Reinvestment Scale, displayed more alpha2 T3–Fz co-activation than participants with a weak propensity. In Study 2, participants who practiced a golf putting task implicitly (via an errorless learning protocol) displayed less alpha2 T3–Fz co-activation than those who practiced explicitly (by errorful learning). In addition, explicit but not implicit motor learners displayed more T3–Fz co-activation during golf putting under pressure, implying that verbal-analytical processing of putting movements increased under pressure. These findings provide neuropsychological evidence that supports claims that implicit motor learning can be used to limit movement specific reinvestment.► T3–Fz co-activation reflects verbal-analytical involvement in motor planning. ► T3–Fz co-activation differentiates the propensity for conscious control of movements. ► Implicit motor learning promotes low T3–Fz co-activation. ► T3–Fz co-activation remains low under pressure in implicit motor learners.
Sounds offer a rich source of information about events taking place in our physical and social environment. However, outside the domains of speech and music, little is known about whether humans can recognize and act upon the intentions... more
Sounds offer a rich source of information about events taking place in our physical and social environment. However, outside the domains of speech and music, little is known about whether humans can recognize and act upon the intentions of another agent’s actions detected through auditory informa- tion alone. In this study we assessed whether intention can be inferred from the sound an action makes, and in turn, whether this information can be used to prospectively guide movement. In 2 experiments experienced and novice basketball players had to virtually intercept an attacker by listening to audio recordings of that player’s movements. In the first experiment participants had to move a slider, while in the second one their body, to block the perceived passage of the attacker as they would in a real basketball game. Combinations of deceptive and nondeceptive movements were used to see if novice and/or experienced listeners could perceive the attacker’s intentions through sound alone. We showed that basketball players were able to more accurately predict final running direction compared to nonplayers, particularly in the second experiment when the interceptive action was more basketball specific. We suggest that athletes present better action anticipation by being able to pick up and use the relevant kinematic features of deceptive movement from event-related sounds alone. This result suggests that action intention can be perceived through the sound a movement makes and that the ability to determine another person’s action intention from the information conveyed through sound is honed through practice.
Converging evidence indicates that motor deficits in cerebral palsy (CP) are related not only to problems with execution, but also to impaired motor planning. Current rehabilitation mainly focuses on alleviating compromised motor... more
Converging evidence indicates that motor deficits in cerebral palsy (CP) are related not only to problems with execution, but also to impaired motor planning. Current rehabilitation mainly focuses on alleviating compromised motor execution. Motor imagery is a promising method of training the more ‘cognitive’ aspects of motor behaviour, and may, therefore, be effective in facilitating motor planning in patients with CP. In this review first we present the specific motor planning problems in CP followed by a discussion of motor imagery and its use in clinical practice. Second, we present the steps to be taken before motor imagery can be used for rehabilitation of upper limb functioning in CP. Motor imagery training has been shown to be a useful addition to existing rehabilitation protocols for poststroke rehabilitation. No such study has been conducted in CP. The age at which children can reliably use motor imagery, as well as the specific way in which motor imagery training needs to be implemented, must be researched before motor imagery training can be employed in children with CP. Based on the positive results for poststroke rehabilitation, and in light of the motor problems in CP, motor imagery training may be a valuable additional tool for rehabilitation in CP.
BackgroundAn understanding of differences in expert and novice neural behavior can inform surgical skills training. Outside the surgical domain, electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence analyses have shown that during motor performance,... more
BackgroundAn understanding of differences in expert and novice neural behavior can inform surgical skills training. Outside the surgical domain, electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence analyses have shown that during motor performance, experts display less coactivation between the verbal-analytic and motor planning regions than their less skilled counterparts. Reduced involvement of verbal-analytic processes suggests greater neural efficiency. The authors tested the utility of an implicit motor learning intervention specifically devised to promote neural efficiency by reducing verbal-analytic involvement in laparoscopic performance.MethodsIn this study, 18 novices practiced a movement pattern on a laparoscopic trainer with either conscious awareness of the movement pattern (explicit motor learning) or suppressed awareness of the movement pattern (implicit motor learning). In a retention test, movement accuracy was compared between the conditions, and coactivation (EEG coherence) was assessed between the motor planning (Fz) region and both the verbal-analytic (T3) and the visuospatial (T4) cortical regions (T3-Fz and T4-Fz, respectively).ResultsMovement accuracy in the conditions was not different in a retention test (P = 0.231). Findings showed that the EEG coherence scores for the T3-Fz regions were lower for the implicit learners than for the explicit learners (P = 0.027), but no differences were apparent for the T4-Fz regions (P = 0.882).ConclusionsImplicit motor learning reduced EEG coactivation between verbal-analytic and motor planning regions, suggesting that verbal-analytic processes were less involved in laparoscopic performance. The findings imply that training techniques that discourage nonessential coactivation during motor performance may provide surgeons with more neural resources with which to manage other aspects of surgery.
Selective attention relies on dynamic restructuring of cortical information flow to prioritize neuronal communication between those neuronal groups conveying information about behaviorally relevant information while reducing the influence... more
Selective attention relies on dynamic restructuring of cortical information flow to prioritize neuronal communication between those neuronal groups conveying information about behaviorally relevant information while reducing the influence from groups encoding irrelevant and distracting information. Electrophysiological evidence suggests that such selective neuronal communication is instantiated and sustained through selective neuronal synchronization of rhythmic gamma band activity within and between neuronal groups. Attentionally modulated synchronization patterns evolve rapidly, are evident even before sensory inputs arrive, follow closely subjective readiness to process information in time, can be sustained for prolonged time periods, and convey specific information about perceptually selected sensory features and motor plans. These functional implications of selective synchronization patterns are complemented by recent insights about the mechanistic origins of rhythmic synchronization at micro- and macro- scales of cortical neuronal processing, suggesting that selective attention is subserved by precise neuronal synchronization that is selective in space, time and frequency.
The ability of rapidly adapting our motor behaviour in order to face the unpredictable changes in the surrounding environment is fundamental for survival. To achieve such a high level of efficiency our motor system has to assess... more
The ability of rapidly adapting our motor behaviour in order to face the unpredictable changes in the surrounding environment is fundamental for survival. To achieve such a high level of efficiency our motor system has to assess continuously the context in which it acts, gathering all available information that can be relevant for planning goal-oriented movements. One still-debated aspect of movement organization is the nature and timing of motor planning. While motor plans are often taken to be concerned with the setting of kinematic parameters as a function of perceptual and motor factors, it has been suggested that higher level, cognitive factors may also affect planning. To explore this issue further, we asked 18 right-handed human participants to perform speeded hand-reaching movement toward a visual target in two different experimental settings, a reaction time (RT) paradigm (go-only task) and a countermanding paradigm. In both tasks participants executed the same movements, but in the countermanding task no-stop trials were randomly intermixed with stop trials. In stop trials participants were required to withhold the ongoing movement whenever a stop signal was shown. It is known that the presence of stop trials induces a consistent increase of the RTs of no-stop trials with respect to the RTs of go-only trials. However, nothing is known about a similar effect for movement times (MTs). We found that RTs and MTs exhibit opposing tendencies, so that a decrease in the RT correspond to an increase in the MT and vice versa. This tendency was present in all our participants and significant in 90% of them. Furthermore we found a moderate, but again very consistent, anticorrelation between RTs and MTs on a trial-by-trial base. These findings are consistent with strategic changes in movement programmes for the very same movements under different cognitive contexts, requiring different degrees of feedback-driven control during movement.
Grip selection tasks have been used to test “planning” in both autism and developmental coordination disorder (DCD). We differentiate between motor and executive planning and present a modified motor planning task. Participants grasped... more
Grip selection tasks have been used to test “planning” in both autism and developmental coordination
disorder (DCD). We differentiate between motor and executive planning and present a modified motor
planning task. Participants grasped a cylinder in 1 of 2 orientations before turning it clockwise or
anticlockwise. The rotation resulted in a comfortable final posture at the cost of a harder initial reaching
action on 50% of trials. We hypothesized that grip selection would be dominated by motoric developmental
status. Adults were always biased towards a comfortable end-state with their dominant hand, but
occasionally ended uncomfortably with their nondominant hand. Most 9- to 14-year-olds with and
without autism also showed this “end-state comfort” bias but only 50% of 5- to 8-year-olds. In contrast,
children with DCD were biased towards selecting the simplest initial movement. Our results are best
understood in terms of motor planning, with selection of an easier initial grip resulting from poor
reach-to-grasp control rather than an executive planning deficit. The absence of differences between
autism and controls may reflect the low demand this particular task places on executive planning.
How do humans interact with tools? Gibson (1979) suggested that humans perceive directly what tools afford in terms of meaningful actions. This “affordances” hypothesis implies that visual objects can potentiate motor responses even in... more
How do humans interact with tools? Gibson (1979) suggested that humans perceive directly what tools afford in terms of meaningful actions. This “affordances” hypothesis implies that visual objects can potentiate motor responses even in the absence of an intention to act. Here we explore the temporal evolution of motor plans afforded by common objects. We presented objects that have a strong significance for action (pinching and grasping) and objects with no such significance. Two experimental tasks involved participants viewing objects presented on a computer screen. For the first task, they were instructed to respond rapidly to changes in background colour by using an apparatus mimicking precision and power grip responses. For the second task, they received stimulation of their primary motor cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) while passively viewing the objects. Muscular responses (motor evoked potentials: MEPs) were recorded from two intrinsic hand muscles (associated with either a precision or power grip). The data showed an interaction between type of response (or muscle) and type of object, with both reaction time and MEP measures implying the generation of a congruent motor plan in the period immediately after object presentation. The results provide further support for the notion that the physical properties of objects automatically activate specific motor codes, but also demonstrate that this influence is rapid and relatively short lived.► How do objects automatically activate specific motor plans known as “affordances”? ► Task-irrelevant pictures shown to activate congruent grip actions. ► Affordance effect evident in both RTs and motor evoked potentials. ► Affordance effect arises rapidly and also dissipates quickly. ► Affordance effect evident for separate hand actions generated in the same hemisphere.