Periodic tapping mechanisms of skill learning in a fast-paced video game.

Timing plays a critical role when building up motor skill. In this study, we investigated and simulated human skill learning in a simplified variant of the Space Fortress video game named Auto Orbit with a strong timing component. Our principal aim was to test whether a computational model designed to simulate keypress actions repeated at rates slower than 500 ms (>500 ms) could also simulate human learning with repeated keypress actions taking place at very fast rates (≤500 ms). The main finding was that increasing speed stress forced human participants to qualitatively switch their behavior from a cognitively controlled strategy to an inherently rhythmic motor strategy. We show how the adaptive control of thought rational architecture's periodic tapping motor extension can replicate such rhythmic patterns of keypresses in two different computational models of human learning. The first model implements streamed motor actions across hands that are temporally decoupled, while the second model implements a coupled motor strategy in which actions from both hands are executed relative to the same periodic motor clock. Different subsets of subjects correspond to these two models. Our modeling simulations integrate previous psychological and motor control findings within a single cognitive architecture, and successfully replicate human behavioral patterns across a range of experimental measures at fast speed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Rhythm Complexity Modulates Behavioral and Neural Dynamics During Auditory-Motor Synchronization.

We addressed how rhythm complexity influences auditory-motor synchronization in musically trained individuals who perceived and produced complex rhythms while EEG was recorded. Participants first listened to two-part auditory sequences (Listen condition). Each part featured a single pitch presented at a fixed rate; the integer ratio formed between the two rates varied in rhythmic complexity from low (1:1) to moderate (1:2) to high (3:2). One of the two parts occurred at a constant rate across conditions. Then, participants heard the same rhythms as they synchronized their tapping at a fixed rate (Synchronize condition). Finally, they tapped at the same fixed rate (Motor condition). Auditory feedback from their taps was present in all conditions. Behavioral effects of rhythmic complexity were evidenced in all tasks; detection of missing beats (Listen) worsened in the most complex (3:2) rhythm condition, and tap durations (Synchronize) were most variable and least synchronous with stimulus onsets in the 3:2 condition. EEG power spectral density was lowest at the fixed rate during the 3:2 rhythm and greatest during the 1:1 rhythm (Listen and Synchronize). ERP amplitudes corresponding to an N1 time window were smallest for the 3:2 rhythm and greatest for the 1:1 rhythm (Listen). Finally, synchronization accuracy (Synchronize) decreased as amplitudes in the N1 time window became more positive during the high rhythmic complexity condition (3:2). Thus, measures of neural entrainment corresponded to synchronization accuracy, and rhythmic complexity modulated the behavioral and neural measures similarly.

Congruency and reactivation aid memory integration through reinstatement of prior knowledge.

Building knowledge schemas that organize information and guide future learning is of great importance in everyday life. Such knowledge building is suggested to occur through reinstatement of prior knowledge during new learning, yielding integration of new with old memories supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL). Congruency with prior knowledge is also known to enhance subsequent memory. Yet, how reactivation and congruency interact to optimize memory integration is unknown. To investigate this question, we used an adapted AB-AC inference paradigm in combination with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Participants first studied an AB-association followed by an AC-association, so B (a scene) and C (an object) were indirectly linked through A (a pseudoword). BC-associations were either congruent or incongruent with prior knowledge (e.g. bathduck or hammer in a bathroom), and participants reported subjective B-reactivation strength while learning AC. Behaviorally, both congruency and reactivation enhanced memory integration. In the brain, these behavioral effects related to univariate and multivariate parametric effects in the MTL, mPFC, and Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA). Moreover, mPFC exhibited larger PPA-connectivity for more congruent associations. These outcomes provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying memory enhancement, which has value for educational learning.