TY - JOUR

T1 - Sensory-guided motor tasks benefit from mental training based on serial prediction

AU - Binder, Ellen

AU - Hagelweide, Klara

AU - Wang, Ling E

AU - Kornysheva, Katja

AU - Grefkes, Christian

AU - Fink, Gereon R

AU - Schubotz, Ricarda I

N1 - © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

PY - 2014/2

Y1 - 2014/2

N2 - Mental strategies have been suggested to constitute a promising approach to improve motor abilities in both healthy subjects and patients. This behavioural effect has been shown to be associated with changes of neural activity in premotor areas, not only during movement execution, but also while performing motor imagery or action observation. However, how well such mental tasks are performed is often difficult to assess, especially in patients. We here used a novel mental training paradigm based on the serial prediction task (SPT) in order to activate premotor circuits in the absence of a motor task. We then tested whether this intervention improves motor-related performance such as sensorimotor transformation. Two groups of healthy young participants underwent a single-blinded five-day cognitive training schedule and were tested in four different motor tests on the day before and after training. One group (N=22) received the SPT-training and the other one (N=21) received a control training based on a serial match-to-sample task. The results revealed significant improvements of the SPT-group in a sensorimotor timing task, i.e. synchronization of finger tapping to a visually presented rhythm, as well as improved visuomotor coordination in a sensory-guided pointing task compared to the group that received the control training. However, mental training did not show transfer effects on motor abilities in healthy subjects beyond the trained modalities as evident by non-significant changes in the Jebsen-Taylor handfunctiontest. In summary, the data suggest that mental training based on the serial prediction task effectively engages sensorimotor circuits and thereby improves motor behaviour.

AB - Mental strategies have been suggested to constitute a promising approach to improve motor abilities in both healthy subjects and patients. This behavioural effect has been shown to be associated with changes of neural activity in premotor areas, not only during movement execution, but also while performing motor imagery or action observation. However, how well such mental tasks are performed is often difficult to assess, especially in patients. We here used a novel mental training paradigm based on the serial prediction task (SPT) in order to activate premotor circuits in the absence of a motor task. We then tested whether this intervention improves motor-related performance such as sensorimotor transformation. Two groups of healthy young participants underwent a single-blinded five-day cognitive training schedule and were tested in four different motor tests on the day before and after training. One group (N=22) received the SPT-training and the other one (N=21) received a control training based on a serial match-to-sample task. The results revealed significant improvements of the SPT-group in a sensorimotor timing task, i.e. synchronization of finger tapping to a visually presented rhythm, as well as improved visuomotor coordination in a sensory-guided pointing task compared to the group that received the control training. However, mental training did not show transfer effects on motor abilities in healthy subjects beyond the trained modalities as evident by non-significant changes in the Jebsen-Taylor handfunctiontest. In summary, the data suggest that mental training based on the serial prediction task effectively engages sensorimotor circuits and thereby improves motor behaviour.

KW - Adult

KW - Auditory Perception

KW - Cognition

KW - Female

KW - Hand

KW - Humans

KW - Learning

KW - Male

KW - Neuropsychological Tests

KW - Psychomotor Performance

KW - Single-Blind Method

KW - Task Performance and Analysis

KW - Time Perception

KW - Transfer (Psychology)

KW - Visual Perception

KW - Young Adult

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.11.018

DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.11.018

M3 - Article

C2 - 24321273

VL - 54

SP - 18

EP - 27

JO - Neuropsychologia

JF - Neuropsychologia

SN - 0028-3932

ER -