Research article summary (published 23 Apr 2007):

Divided attention impairs human motor adaptation but not feedback control.

Full Abstract

When humans experience externally induced errors in a movement, the motor system's feedback control compensates for those errors within the movement. The motor system's predictive control then uses information about those errors to inform future movements. The role of attention in these two distinct motor processes is unclear. Previous experiments have revealed a role for attention in motor learning over the course of many movements; however, these experimental paradigms do not determine how attention influences within-movement feedback control versus across-movement adaptation. Here we develop a dual-task paradigm, consisting of movement and audio tasks, which can differentiate and expose attention's role in these two processes of motor control. Over the course of several days, subjects performed horizontal reaching movements, with and without the audio task; movements were occasionally subjected to transient force perturbations. On movements with a force perturbation, subjects compensated for the force-induced movement errors, and on movements immediately after the force perturbation subjects exhibited adaptation. On every movement trial, subjects performed a two-tone frequency-discrimination task. The temporal specificity of the frequency-discrimination task allowed us to divide attention within and across movements. We find that divided attention did not impair the within-movement feedback control of the arm, but did reduce subsequent movement adaptation. We suggest that the secondary task interfered with the encoding and transformation of errors into changes in predictive control.

Author information

Author/s: Taylor, Jordan A (JA); Thoroughman, Kurt A (KA);

Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA.

Grants: HD055851 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of neurophysiology (J Neurophysiol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jul; vol 98 (issue 1) : pp 317-26

Dates: Created 2007/07/11; Completed 2007/10/02; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17460104, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods Adaptation, Physiological Adolescent Adult Attention - physiology Feedback - physiology

Female Humans Male Movement - physiology Psychomotor Performance - physiology Reaction Time - physiology

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