Authors: Spencer J Hayes Digby Elliott Matthew Andrew James W Roberts Simon J Bennett
Publish Date: 2012/07/22
Volume: 221, Issue: 4, Pages: 459-466
Abstract
We examined the hypothesis that different processes and representations are associated with the learning of a movement sequence through motorexecution and actionobservation Following a pretest in which participants attempted to achieve an absolute and relative time goal in a sequential goaldirected aiming movement participants received either physical or observational practice with feedback Posttest performance indicated that motorexecution and actionobservation participants learned equally well Participants then transferred to conditions where the gain between the limb movements and their visual consequences were manipulated Under both bigger and smaller transfer conditions motorexecution and actionobservation participants exhibited similar intramanual transfer of absolute timing However participants in the actionobservation group exhibited superior transfer of relative timing than the motorexecution group These findings suggest that learning via actionobservation is underpinned by a visual–spatial representation while learning via motorexecution depends more on specific force–time planning feed forward and afferent processing associated with sensorimotor feedback These behavioural effects are discussed with reference to neural processes associated with striatum cerebellum and motor cortical regions premotor cortex SMA preSMA
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