Motor Skills

121.

Effect of levetiracetam on rapid motor learning in humans.

BACKGROUND: The human motor cortex (M1) has a role in motor learning. Antiepileptic drugs that suppress M1 excitability may affect learning, presumably by inhibiting long-term potentiation. Levetiracetam, a new antiepileptic drug with a unique ...
Young H Sohn, Han Y Jung, Alain Kaelin-Lang, Mark Hallett (Arch Neurol, 200212)
effect-levetiracetam-rapid-motor-learning-humans.asp

122.

Modularity and hierarchical organization of action programs in human acquisition of graphic skills.

If motor or action programs become modules with practice their defining features (e.g. relative timing) should remain relatively invariant in new tasks. To test this hypothesis 24 adults practiced a graphic skill over 100 trials and were transferred to a ...
Edison de J Manoel, Luciano Basso, Umberto C Correa, Go Tani (Neurosci Lett, 200212)
modularity-hierarchical-organization-action-programs-human.asp

123.

Stability and skill in driving.

Two experiments addressed the relation between postural stability, perceptual sensitivity, and stability of driving performance. A vehicle was fitted with differential GPS for measuring position and speed, position sensors for measuring brake and ...
Paul Treffner, Rod Barrett, Andrew Petersen (Hum Mov Sci, 200212)
stability-skill-driving.asp

124.

Practice effects on coordination and control, metabolic energy expenditure, and muscle activation.

One defining characteristic of skilled motor performance is the ability to complete the task with minimum energy expenditure. This experiment was designed to examine practice effects on coordination and control, metabolic energy expenditure, and muscle ...
B S Lay, W A Sparrow, K M Hughes, N J ODwyer (Hum Mov Sci, 200212)
practice-effects-coordination-control-metabolic-energy-expenditure.asp

125.

Task-induced modulation of motor evoked potentials in upper-leg muscles during human gait: a TMS study.

The aim of this study was to determine the relative involvement of the corticospinal (CS) pathway in voluntarily controlled walking compared to unconstrained walking. In the voluntarily controlled walking condition, subjects had to walk at the same speed ...
Mireille Bonnard, Mickaël Camus, Thelma Coyle, Jean Pailhous (Eur J Neurosci, 200212)
task-induced-modulation-motor-evoked-potentials-upper-leg-muscles.asp

126.

Freezing degrees of freedom under stress: kinematic evidence of constrained movement strategies.

The present study investigated the effect of psychological stress imposed on movement kinematics in a computer-simulated batting task involving a backward and forward swing of the forearm. The psychological stress was imposed by a mild electric stimulus ...
Takahiro Higuchi, Kuniyasu Imanaka, Toshiteru Hatayama (Hum Mov Sci, 200212)
freezing-degrees-freedom-under-stress-kinematic-evidence-constrained.asp

127.

Differential transfer benefits of increased practice for constant, blocked, and serial practice schedules.

The effects of practice schedule and amount of practice on the development of the generalized motor program (GMP) and on parameter estimation were investigated. Participants (N = 108) practiced the same relative timing but different absolute durations of ...
C lare G Giuffrida, John B Shea, Jeffrey T Fairbrother (J Mot Behav, 200212)
differential-transfer-benefits-increased-practice-constant-blocked.asp

128.

Cognitive efficiency modes in old age: performance on sequential and coordinative verbal and visuospatial tasks.

In an experiment using a large set of verbal and spatial tasks requiring low or high degrees of executive control, 3 distinct age-related effects were found. The smallest effect (no slowing) was tied to lexical tasks with low executive involvement, the ...
Paul Verhaeghen, John Cerella, Silvie C Semenec, Melissa A Leo, Kara L Bopp, David W Steitz (Psychol Aging, 200212)
cognitive-efficiency-modes-old-age-performance-sequential.asp

129.

Differences in trace and delay visuomotor associative learning in cerebellar patients.

Recent studies revealed an impairment of patients with cerebellar lesions in cognitive associative learning paradigms, which could not be explained by motor deficits or increased attentional demands during performance of the motor part of the particular ...
Matthias Maschke, Johannes Drepper, Katja Bürgerhoff, Sandra Calabrese, Florian P Kolb, Irene Daum, Hans-Christoph Diener, Dagmar Timmann (Exp Brain Res, 200212)
differences-trace-delay-visuomotor-associative-learning-cerebellar.asp

130.

Long-term retention of motor skill in macaque monkeys and humans.

Remarkable human performance, such as playing the violin, is often based on motor skills that, once acquired, are retained for a long time. To examine how motor skills are retained, we trained monkeys and humans extensively to perform many visuomotor ...
O Hikosaka, M K Rand, K Nakamura, S Miyachi, K Kitaguchi, K Sakai, X Lu, Y Shimo (Exp Brain Res, 200212)
long-term-retention-motor-skill-macaque-monkeys-humans.asp