Neuroplasticity in Motor Learning Under Variable and Constant Practice Conditions-Protocol of Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: There is numerous literature on mechanisms underlying variability of practice advantages. Literature includes both behavioral and neuroimaging studies. Unfortunately, no studies are focusing on practice in constant conditions to the best of our knowledge. Hence it is essential to assess possible differences in mechanisms of neuroplasticity between constant vs. variable practice conditions. The primary objectives of the study described in this protocol will be: (1) to determine the brain's structural and functional changes following constant and variable practice conditions in motor learning (structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, MRI); (2) to determine the EEG activation and connectivity between cognitive, sensory, and motor cerebral cortex areas (central, temporal, parietal, occipital) in constant and variable practice conditions and as a function of practice time. Methods: The study will follow the interventional (experimental) design with two arms (parallel groups). Fifty participants will be randomly assigned to two groups practicing in constant (CG) and variable conditions (VG). CG will be practicing only one pattern of step isometric contractions during unimanual index finger abduction, i.e., 90 trials in all training sessions, whereas VG will practice three different patterns. Each will be practiced 30 times per session in variable conditions. Resting-state fMRI, EEG (cortical networking), and motor task proficiency will be examined before (pre-) and after practice (post- and retentions tests). Discussion: Findings will enhance our understanding of structural and functional neural changes following practice in constant and variable conditions. Therefore, the study can be considered pure (basic) research (clinical research in healthy individuals). Clinical Trial Registration: Study registered at clinicaltrials.gov (ID# NCT04921072) on 9 June 2021. Last version update: 21 December 2021.The protocol has been prepared according to the complete SPIRIT checklist (http://www.spirit-statement.org/), although the item order has been modified in order to comply with the manuscript structure.

Variability of Practice, Information Processing, and Decision Making-How Much Do We Know?

Decision-making is a complex action requiring efficient information processing. Specifically, in movement in which performance efficiency depends on reaction time, e.g., open-loop controlled movements, these processes may play a crucial role. Information processing includes three distinct stages, stimulus identification, response selection, and response programming. Mainly, response selection may play a substantial contribution to the reaction time and appropriate decision making. The duration of this stage depends on the number of possible choices an individual has to "screen" to make a proper decision. Given that reaction time is crucial in many sports, the possibilities of reducing it through practice are very tempting. The information processing and its relationship to the manner an individual is practicing are discussed. Especially the variability of practice issues will be explored. In variable practice conditions, an individual has to react to one or more stimuli and has to produce one of the many variations of the same movement or different movements they learned. One has to identify a stimulus appropriately and has to select a response optimally, i.e., choosing from as few choices as possible to reduce the reaction time. On the other hand, in constant practice conditions, an individual can be exposed to one or many stimuli. Still, there is only one variation of the movement that can be executed in the presence of a learned stimulus. Based on the information processing theory and the results of the research focusing on variability of practice, I discuss how the practice conditions may affect reaction time and, as a result, the decision-making process. I conceptually frame the possible implications of practice conditions on decision making related to information processing. In this review, a possible mechanism and relationship between practice conditions and decision-making are presented. Future research directions are presented.

Benefits of a Guided Motor-Mental Preperformance Routine on Learning the Basketball Free Throw.

While past research has shown the benefits of preperformance routines (PPRs) on athletes' performances, only a few studies have addressed PPR effects on novices' learning or performance. This study investigated the effect of motor-mental PPR on learning the basketball free throw. We categorized 45 undergraduate male students into three 15-session training groups receiving (a) a five-step PPR based on Singer's model, (b) a self-regulation PPR, and (c) no PPR, but only a basketball free throw performance (control group). One week later, we conducted retention and transfer testing. A repeated measures analysis of variance and two-way mixed design analysis of variance showed that, in the acquisition and test phases, the five-step PPR group performed better than the other two groups (p < .001), and there was no significant difference between the self-regulation PPR and control groups. The results also showed that, in accordance with the specificity of practice hypothesis, participants' performance decreased significantly on transfer testing when PPR was removed from the experimental groups. A well-guided motor-mental PPR was superior to a self-regulated PPR for novices learning this basketball skill, probably because it increased the participants' concentration during acquisition and helped them learn it as part of a motor pattern.

Seeing Is Believing: Blind Putting Drills Confer No Advantage to the Novice Golfer.

Purpose: Golf coaches may recommend "blind" putting drills in which golfers close their eyes to improve their feel. Research on specificity of learning suggests, however, that adding or removing a source of sensory information after practicing under differing circumstances can cause performance decrements. Specificity of learning is also dependent upon specific task requirements. The purpose of this study was to examine whether golf putting, requiring body positioning and aiming an implement, would benefit from blind training. Method: Novice golfers (n = 24) in Vision Training (VT) & No-Vision Training (NVT) groups completed 108 trials of a 10-ft putt. After a 24-hr delay, both groups completed sighted- and blind-putting tests. Results: Acquisition results revealed Group × Block interactions in RE (p = .025) and y-VE (p = .032). Post hoc procedures revealed significant differences between the groups on Block 2 (p = .017), with the NVT group producing longer mean RE. During testing, RE and x-VE results revealed Group × Test interactions (p = .027 & .041), such that performance of the VT group suffered when transferred to blind putting, while performance of the NVT group did not differ when transferred. Conclusion: NVT did not confer any advantage for subsequent performance with vision. Moreover, results were not consistent with the specificity of learning hypothesis and suggest that putting does not rely on complete sensory integration to support subsequent performance. Presumably, task requirements related to body positioning provided adequate sensory cues for successful performance.

The Development of Generalized Motor Program in Constant and Variable Practice Conditions.

The main objective of our study was to determine whether constant and variable practice conditions lead to the development of different memory representations (GMP) and as a result, they benefit performance of a skill differently. We compared one of the Generalized Motor Program (GMP) invariant features, i.e., relative timing, of the same variation of skill developed in constant and variable practice conditions. In two experiments, participants, naïve to the basketball, were practicing free throws, receiving the same amount of practice. In constant conditions they practiced at one distance only (4.57 m), whereas in variable conditions they practiced at seven (2.74, 3.35, 3.96, 4.57, 5.18, 5.79, and 6.4 m) and five (3.35, 3.96, 4.57, 5.18, and 5.79 m) distances, in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. We found that relative timing of skills developed in constant and variable practice conditions is the same, confirming that these practice conditions form the same memory representation. However, we also observed that constant practice (CP) conditions resulted in overall shorter movement time as compared to the skill practiced in variable conditions. We hypothesized that it may be due to the facilitation of parameters assignment as it takes place in especial skill.

Changing performance pressure between training and competition influences action planning because of a reduction in the efficiency of action execution.

Background and objectives Specificity of practice proposes optimal performance is linked to the conditions under which learning occurred. The present study investigated this effect within a pressure context to determine whether offline and/or online control processes develop specificity through the introduction or removal of performance pressure. Methods Forty novices practiced a two-dimensional stimulus-response discrimination task in one of four groups; two control (control-control and anxiety-anxiety) and two experimental (control-anxiety and anxiety-control). In the experimental groups, participants experienced a switch in conditions of pressure both early and late in practice, i.e., practiced in low-pressure and transferred to high-pressure (control-anxiety group) or the reverse of this (anxiety-control group). Results A significant acquisition-to-transfer decrement in performance occurred for both experimental groups. This offers support for a pressure-performance specificity effect because a change in conditions of pressure (regardless if that was an increase or decrease) resulted in performance decrements. Furthermore, the reaction time measure of offline control was affected by the change to a significantly greater extent than the movement time measure of online control. Conclusions Increases in offline control processes was a performance strategy adopted to combat the disruption that pressure caused to the processes associated with adjusting or planning movements online.

The effect of constant practice in transfer tests

Abstract BACKGROUND There is aconsensus that repetition observed in constant practice producesminimalbenefits to the transfer of learning. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigatein 3 experiments the effects of constant practicein transfer contexts. METHODOLOGY Participants were asked during acquisition phase, in all experiments, to press four keys sequentially with different requirements of absolute timing in a same relative timing structure. In the transfer tests, they were tested in a novel absolute timing criterion. RESULTS The results of experiment 1 and 2 showed that the relative timing structure was maintained only when the transfer required parameter scaling close to the parameter value practiced in acquisition. The transfer parameter that is far to the parameter practiced did not affect the movement parameterization. The result of experiment 3 showed that relative timing structure is disrupted in the transfer test when constant practice has high and low amount of practice. CONCLUSION Some specific aspects interfere in the transfer test when constant practice is experienced.(AU)

Specificity vs. Generalizability: Emergence of Especial Skills in Classical Archery.

There is evidence that the recall schema becomes more refined after constant practice. It is also believed that massive amounts of constant practice eventually leads to the emergence of especial skills, i.e., skills that have an advantage in performance over other actions from within the same class of actions. This advantage in performance was noticed when one-criterion practice, e.g., basketball free throws, was compared to non-practiced variations of the skill. However, there is no evidence whether multi-criterion massive amounts of practice would give an advantage to the trained variations of the skill over non-trained, i.e., whether such practice would eventually lead to the development of (multi)-especial skills. The purpose of this study was to determine whether massive amount of practice involving four criterion variations of the skill will give an advantage in performance to the criterions over the class of actions. In two experiments, we analyzed data from female (n = 8) and male classical archers (n = 10), who were required to shoot 30 shots from four accustomed distances, i.e., males at 30, 50, 70, and 90 m and females at 30, 50, 60, and 70 m. The shooting accuracy for the untrained distances (16 distances in men and 14 in women) was used to compile a regression line for distance over shooting accuracy. Regression determined (expected) values were then compared to the shooting accuracy of the trained distances. Data revealed no significant differences between real and expected results at trained distances, except for the 70 m shooting distance in men. The F-test for lack of fit showed that the regression computed for trained and non-trained shooting distances was linear. It can be concluded that especial skills emerge only after very specific practice, i.e., constant practice limited to only one variation of the skill.

Self-Control of Task Difficulty During Early Practice Promotes Motor Skill Learning.

This study was designed to determine whether the effect of self-control of task difficulty on motor learning is a function of the period of self-control administration. In a complex anticipation-coincidence task that required participants to intercept 3 targets with a virtual racquet, the task difficulty was either self-controlled or imposed to the participants in the two phases of the acquisition session. First, the results confirmed the beneficial effects of self-control over fully prescribed conditions. Second, the authors also demonstrated that a partial self-control of task difficulty better promotes learning than does a complete self-controlled procedure. Overall, the results revealed that these benefits are increased when this choice is allowed during early practice. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and applied perspectives.