Introduction to Motor Behaviour

Lecture #1 W1

Motor Behaviour

Skills & motor skills/behaviour

Skill/Behaviour

Voluntary goal-directed activity learned through practice or experience.

Motor Skill/Behavior

Voluntary goal-directed activity that we learn through practice or experience that requires movement of body or limbs to bring about a specific result.

Characteristics of a Motor Skill:

• Maximum certainty of goal achievement
• Minimum time
• Minimum energy expenditure
• Retention (can repeat skill with high certainity
• over a lifetime)

Fundamental Motor Skills

Skills learnt during development that provide the basis for development of specialised motor skills.

Stability Skills: Control of the body via resisting forces through balance and coordination. E>G. Twsiting, balancing, bending, single limb movements)

Locomotor Skill: Moving an individual or group of limbs through space via a contralateral coordination of movement. E.G. Crawling, running and walking.

Manipulative Skills: Control and coordination of an object in space. E.G. Throwing, catching, kicking, stricking.

Specialised Motor Skills

Advanced versions of fundamental motor skills or combinations of fundamental motor skills that we apply to a specific sport.

Precision of Movement: Gross & Fine

Organisation of the Skill:

Discrete: Clear beginning and end (one distinct movement). E.G. Free throw, catching, throwing.

Serial: Several discrete actions. E.G. Gymnastics routine.

Continuous: Arbitrary beginning and end of repetitive movements. E.G. Swimming and running.

Stability of the Environment:

Closed: Stable predictable environment. E.G. Putting, dart throwing, free throw.

Open: Variable unpredictable environment. Movement adapted to the environment. E.G. Tackling, reactive movements in sport – passing.

Problem is most skills contain many aspects of closed, open, discrete, serial and continuous so that’s how one-dimensional approach is limited.

Gentile’s system

1.Environmental context

• Regulatory conditions (environmental features that influence how learner performs a skill)
• Stationary (environment is stable and does not change substantially)
• In motion (environment changes during performance)

Intertrial variability: whether requirements change from one performance to next. Every time you perform a skill how variable is the outcome of the skill due to internal and external factors. (Gentile’s system, 2000)

1. Action requirements

• Body orientation (whether the body is moving)
• Body stability (the body is not changing position)
• Body transport (the body is moving).
• Object manipulation (whether learner is controlling an object as part of skill)

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Practice distribution and  variability for motor learning and skill acquisition

Lecture #2 W2

Showing how mental practice can still aid in skill performance.

Power law of practice: Diminishing returns

Window of adapation for motor skills is large and rapid at the beginning and performance continues to improve with practice but generally at slower rate as performance increases reaching a point of diminshing returns.

My defintion: The point of diminishing returns describes the process where the practice input needed to create skill progress dramatically slows compared to the early phases where of learning where progress is almost linear and rapid.

How inefficent we are at teaching skills: Amount of practice in physical education and sport

Overlearning

Should you keep learners practicing  skill once they reach criterion level of  performance?

Overlearning: Continue practice beyond amount  needed to achieve some objective performancee outcome/criterion

Purpose = reinforce/maintain learning rather than  increase performance levels

How much overlearning is required to retain criterion of skill?

Ratios of 50 to 200% are effective 

Increasing % generally results in relatively higher retention but with diminishing returns for further practice

Skill type

Continuous/simple skills [requires less] vs discrete/serial/complex skills  [requires more > higher rates of forgetting]

When to introduce overlearning? Continuation of practice or refresher practice equally effective

Overlearning has advantages for retaining skill learning

Disadvantage – it takes time

Practice distribution

Spacing of practice sessions or practice trials

Should you spread practice out so learners get more rest or should you bunch  practice together and provide more work than rest? Depends on training age, neurological demands, time constrains and 100 other things… As instructor you have to  make decisions about  how to distribute practice  time available

Massed and distributed practice

Massed practice: Bunching practice together so less rest

Practice sessions: Fewer practice sessions with each session requiring more  and/or longer practice (downside is quality can be diminished as physiological/cognitive fatigue accumulates)

Practice trials: Amount of rest between trials is very short, so practice is  relatively continuous

= More work time than rest (time efficient)

Distributed practice: Spreading practice out allows more rest/recovery to consolidate learning

Practice sessions: Same amount practice time spread across more sessions, so  each session shorter

Practice trials: Amount of rest between trials is relatively large

= Either more rest time than work time, or equal work  time and rest time

Explanations for benefits of distributed practice sessions

Fatigue: Massed practice reduces opportunities to recover from practice which could  cause fatigue

Cognitive effort: Massed practice might reduce amount of cognitive effort learner uses on  each practice trial

Practice becomes monotonous and repetitious

Memory consolidation: Neuro-biochemical processes  must occur for memories to form. Distributing practice provides time  for memory consolidation to occur.

Practice distribution and practice trials

Performance versus learning

• Distributed practice leads to better practice performance  than massed practice
• Why? Allows some rest, minimises physical and mental fatigue, reduced boredom …

 

• Distributed practice also benefits learning
• But effect of distributed practice  for performance is bigger than  effect for learning

Practice distribution and practice trials

The group that received more rest in between reps tend to have better retention as compared to someone who doesn’t have rest in between. If you’re aim is to improve learning outcomes then distributed practice is more efficient.

Type of skills

Most research has explored massed and distributed practice for continuous skills;  few studies have looked at discrete skills

Continuous skills:

• distributed practice leads to better performance and learning so should aim to distribute practice trials because they’re able to focus more on the continuous skill because its continuous skills are repetitive.

Discrete skills:

• Mass practice appears to lead to better learning.
• Distributed practice probably depresses practice performance but produces similar or better levels of learning.
• Should aim to mass practice trials to increase amount of practice

After a bit of searching, it appears that for discrete skills, mass practice is beneficial for learning, although distributed practice may also result in similar learning effects as well (this is a little contentious as there is not much evidence for it). However, in order to save time or increase practice trials, you could aim to use mass practice as an effective mode of training.  In summary both modes of practice are just as effective, and it is just a matter of logistics, that is whether you can afford the time to do distributed practice.

Practical Implications for practice

Practice sessions

• Keep sessions short, sharp, more frequent
• Especially when instructing skills that cause fatigue, are new or  complex, require intense concentration, involve some element of risk  or danger, or could become monotonous and tedious
• Often have limited choice in distribution of practice sessions –  if required/mandated to have longer sessions, consider ways  of breaking up session
• Break up complex skill practice into its smaller motor components using practice variability
• And, introduce new or complex skills at beginning of sessions when learners  are fresh and focused

Practice trials

• Use distributed practice for continuous skills (arbirtary beginning/end – swimming) to provide for rest from activity and to maximise learning.
• Use  more massed practice for discrete skills (clear beginning and end – Free Throw) with shorter  intervals between practice trials to maximise practice repetition and amount of practice learner engages in and then move to distributed once certain level of motor learning competency has been attained

Practice variability

A variety of skills, skill variations, and practice conditions learner experiences during  practice.

• Practice variability usually produces poorer practice performance and  increased errors or mistakes during practice because you’re varying the condition of the practice

But Performance errors are beneficial to learning

• Improvements in Retention of learning
• And increase transfer of learning from one condition (close distance) to far distance – Application of skill (transfer)
• Therefore practice variability is important for improve retention of learning, enhance scope of skill and increase learning transference

Can introduce practice variability by:

• Varying practice conditions of skill (intraskill)
• Varying skill (interskill)

1. INTRASKILL: Variations of the same skill

Can vary practice conditions of task and environment  (eg. speeds, distances, movement goals …)

Two types of practice schedule:

• Constant practice: practice one variation of skill  repetitively
  • Limited variability

Practicaility: Applied to novice learners who need rehearsel of one skill repeatedly

Variable practice: practice variations of skill by varying:

• Conditions (eg. different locations or different distances)
• Performance environment (eg. time pressure, defenders)
  • Higher variability

Practicality: For more intermediate advanced (autonomous) learners who need variability for furhter skill advancement.

Varying practice conditions (Intraskill)

Variable practice

Why use variable practice? Simulate skill use in sport (ie. real world we don’t repeat skills over  and over – it’s chaotic and random.

Open skill sports (changing environment)

• Constant practice = is risky because you might not being able to adapt skill

Closed skills sports (have a stable start and end point e.g. golf)

Theoretical support for varying practice conditions

1.Generalised motor program and schema development

• We develop GMP (generalised motor patterns) for skills via practice
• GMP consists of invariant features (movement patterns) and we add parameters of movement
  • Varying practice helps develop schema to modify parameters – it helps build on a ‘scheme’ that which you build a skill on

2.Dynamic systems and constraints-led perspectives

• Bernstein > variability = focal component of dynamic systems/constraints led approaches – emphasizes need for learner to explore movement solutions to constraints
• Varying practice helps learners to compensate for changing constraints on movement AND more opportunities for perception-action coupling (reacting to what one perceives)

3.Stages of learning

• Gentile’s model = need for variability of regulatory and non-regulatory conditions to fixate (closed skills) and diversify (open skills) movement pattern in later stage once you’re more proficient
  • Varying practice assists fixation and diversification of movement patterns

4.Motivation and attention

• Repetitive practice = boredom and lack of attention on skill
• Varying practice encourages learner to invest more cognitive effort

Research on practice variability

• Constant practice leads to better performance during practice but variable practice produces better learning (retention and transfer)
• Performance does not always infer learning but learning almost always results in better performance
  • E.G. Cramming for an exam to attain a certain performance grade instead of prolonging repeatidely practicing the skill of the learnt task/information over and over to be able to recall and perform through variable envrionemnts – that’s the difference between performance not inferring learning.

Beneficial effects reported for:

• Laboratory-based research
• More applied research with sport-specific skills
• Research focusing on learning among children

2. INTERSKILL: Varying Skills

In many PE and sport settings, instructors will teach different skills during same session

How should you schedeule practice of these skills?

• Repeat skill over and over again à reinforce the skill?

Types of practic schedules

• Blocked practice = practice of several skills where learner repeats same skill over and over again
• Serial practice = practice of several skills in fixed order to minimise repetition of same skill on next practice trial
• Random practice = practice of several skills where learners do not practice same skill two times in row; learner is constantly switching between skills

Surprising effect > varying skills is beneficial for motor learning and skill acquisition

Contextual interference

EXAM Q: Whta is it?

Interference from practising different skills during practice

• Low contextual interference for blocked practice because we’re only performing the one skill
• High contextual interference with random practice because you’re performing various skills across the same session at a random rate

• Contextual interference effect is what happens when you introduce a number of skills in one blocked session. If you perform skill A and Skill B in the same session block skill B will interfere with the learning of skill A from a memory code retension perspective. But this can enhance learning…why? 

Contextual Interference Effect

• Blocked practice = superior performance during practice and skill acquisition (performance) but skill retention is not as good
• Random practice = superior  performance in retention / transfer  tests (learning) but not as much as an improvement within the session

* Blocked practice can look good during practice but retention and adaptability of  skill in game situations questionable

Factors that influence contextual interference effect

Age

• Blocked practice = early learning with children to optimise learning to not overwhelm (Brady, 1998)

Skill level

• Early stages (early learning) à blocked practice (Goode, 1986)
• Later stages à random practice can be resourceful (eg. Hall et al., 1994)

Serial practice

• Combines easier scheduling of blocked practice and non- repetitiveness of random practice
• Similar learning effects for serial practice and random practice

Performance vs learning

• Learning goals of session – learning or immediate performance?

Explanations for mechanism of how/why contextual interference (CI) effect works

Elaboration hypothesis (Shea & Morgan, 1979)

• Constantly compare and contrast skills à therefore promotes rich, distinctive and elaborate memory of skills
• Random practice – forces to concentrate and pay more attention to skill
• Learner stores more elaborate memory representation

Action plan reconstruction (Lee & Magill, 1983)

• Forced to develop action plan developed, so have to reconstruct an action plan on each practice attempt
• Blocked practice – learner just uses same action plan each time instead random skills performed forces you to be adaptable to the situations you’re exposed to

CI causes more active learning and in increased level of attention and awareness as you perform the task. Thinking about the processes during the task you are more likely to improve memory consolidation.

* Both theories highlight switching of skills encourages more active learning and attention on each trial, rather than going through motions

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Practice design, planning and feedback for motor learning and skill acquisition

Lecture #3 W3

Overview

1) Practice design, and 2) planning are key elements in maximising motor learning in PE and sport

Considerations for this include:

• Specificity of practice
• The level of challenge
• Skill progression
• Manipulating task difficulty
• Time and session management
• Session planning

1. Specificity of practice

Aim = create learning environments that develop skills learner can use in performance context

Specificity of learning hypothesis

Best practice conditions = those as close as possible to target skill and their conditions to maximise trasnference and context AKA doing the skill and playing the game is usually the best thing for increasing sporting/motor learning abilities.

* Objective = make practice more like performance context

2. Creating an optimal challenge

Challenge Point Framework (Guadagnoli & Lee, 2004)

Create learning environment that optimally challenges/stimulutes the learner slightly above the current competency of the individual and titrate up as skill increases

Challenge point: where demands placed on learner = not too difficult and not too easy

• Challenge to promote learning but not minimise performance success

Two categories of task difficulty

• Nominal = arbitary set difficulty of task, irrespective of learner (e.g. 80% success rate)
• Functional = difficulty of task, relative to skill level of learner.

OBVIOUS but important: Increase task difficulty progressively as learner becomes more proficient at skill.

3. Skill progression

Skill progressions = learning tasks that match learners’ needs by moving from simpler/easier tasks to more complex /difficult tasks

Skill progression model (Rink, 1985)

Learning task challenge titrates up from simple/easy to more complex as competency of the individual increases and they apply the skill in a more challenging ‘realistic’ environment.

4. Modifying task complexity

Effective instructors optimally challenge learners and provide for skill progression

Achieve through task modification: Number of task constraints that instructors can modify to change task complexity such as:

Whole and part practice of motor skills

Whole practice

Practice of whole skill (eg. tennis à serve)

Part Practice

Practice where skill is broken down into parts or made simpler (eg. tennis serve à grip; ball toss; backswing …

• A common approach to reduce skill complexity
• Allows learner to focus on components of skill until they can perform whole skill
• Part practice can make skill simpler but it can change skill (eg. movement dynamics)
• Wherever possible practice skills as whole because you’r not going to perform the skill in parts during the live situation (enhance transference) except with novices who are initially learning a skill and need to break down into it’s component parts more effective learning and skill integration

Choice of whole or part practice

Learner characteristics

Age (young child = part practice on complex skills)

Nature of skill

Complexity and organisation (Naylor & Briggs, 1961)

• Complexity = number of parts/components in skill
• Organisation = relationship between parts/components

Duration of skill

• Discrete skills (clear beginning and end) are difficult to teach in parts so teaching it as a WHOLE may be more effective to teach
• Serial skills (several discrete actions) are easier to break into parts for PART practice

Types of part practice

Fractionisation: Separate components practised then put them together (combining them)

Segmentation (progressive part practice): Practice one component, then add second component in conjuction with first component, then another component putting it all together. Layering components of the skill over each other.

Simplification: Reduce the complexity of each part of the skill of some component of skill or environment

• Avoids task decomposition (breaking down skill into component parts); we want to keep motor components coupled and perceptual elements present while simplifying cueing and teaching.

Focus attention on parts: Focus on particular parts of skill that you are lacking in while performing whole skill

Modification of equipment

• Can reduce difficulty or complexity of skill
• Can modify equipment to encourage more efficient movement pattern that is AGE SPECIFIC.

Modifying performance conditions/requirements

• Modifying speed of the object you’re throwing or striking.
• Increase/decrease distance of target
• Very location of target

Practising open skills as closed skills

*** Is there benefit in reducing task difficulty for open skills by making a skill more closed in nature?

We can downsize the skill to practice a micro version of the skill/game in order …

• Reduce task difficulty and allow some success initially in skill performance but the downside is this separates perception-action

 

• Pros: Experience some success with basic movement pattern but shouldn’t be continue for extended periods as it’s not realistic to real skill/game
• Reduces opportunities to practice selecting appropriate movement responses; need opportunities to experience perceptual elements during practice
• Examples of task simplification for open skills that provide for perceptual elements = minor games, modified games, game sense

Modifying: Speed and accuracy

Many sport skills require a combination of speed and accuracy

Speed-accuracy trade-off

Poppelreuter’s Law à emphasize accuracy early in learning then gradually increase speed?

Proposal has been challenged

Specificity of practice

• Speed =  emphasize speed of movement in practice
• Accuracy = emphasize accuracy in practice
• Both speed and accuracy = emphasize both throughout practice

Modifying: Space

Can manipulate space to increase/decrease complexity of task

Games: Size of playing area or performance space can change complexity of skill (eg. shortening/lengthening playing area)

Drills and learning activities

Can also change complexity of skill practice

Modifying: Number of participants

• Can increase/reduce number of participants
• Increasing usually increases task complexity
• Reducing usually reduces task complexity

Games

• Increasing participants reduces space
• Standard “full-version” rule games can result in learners getting minimal opportunities to practice skill
• Modified and minor games

Drills and learning activities

Practicing skill on own is easier than practicing with partner; adding more participants adds even more complexity

Modifying: Rules

• Rules provide constraints on behaviour that can increase or decrease task difficulty
  • Limit how players perform skills and how players interact
  • Can manipulate to create problems for learners to solve
• Primary rules: identify how game is played and won
• Secondary rules à can be modified without changing nature of game

* Keep primary rules consistent (overall goal of the game)

* Modify secondary rules to increase/decrease complexity and develop tactics, strategies, and skills (e.g. how many dribbles you can take)

Modifying: Tactics / Problems

Can modify tactical complexity to match needs of learners/learning goals (e.g. how many seconds it takes to pass the ball)

Progression: Designing games/activities that add tactical complexity

Providing feedback

Types of feedback

Intrinsic and augmented feedback

Intrinsic feedback: sensory information learner receives directly from their performance intrinsically within themselves

• Comes from sensory systems … visual, proprioceptive, cutaneous systems

Augmented feedback: any other information about performance that comes from an external source that adds to or supplements intrinsic feedback

• Instructors often provide augmented feedback to supplement already available intrinsic feedback
• From other sources too

2 types of augmented feedback

• Knowledge of results (KR): feedback about result or outcome of performance. E.G.Time
  • Helps learner understand whether they were successful at achieving goal of skill
• Knowledge of performance (KP): usually qualitative feedback about process of skill performance that led to outcome
  • Provides information about the quality of performance

Functions of augmented feedback

• Information: information on performance or result of performance
• Motivation: influence learner motivation by directing and increasing effort
• Reinforcement: encourage learners to repeat (positive or negative reinforcement) or avoid repeating a behaviour (punishment)
  • HIGHLIGHT SKILLS THAT THEY ARE MAINTAINING
  • Positive reinforcement (providing pleasant stimulus)
  • Negative reinforcement (withholding/removal or unpleasant stimulus)
  • Punishment (providing unpleasant stimulus)
• Dependency: become reliant on augmented feedback

Content of augmented feedback: FOCUS ON BIGGEST BANG FOR BACK CUES THAT WILL AFFECT SMALLER BEHAVIOURS 

Concurrent feedback: feedback provided during performance of skill

Terminal feedback: feedback provided after performance of skill

Knowledge of performance feedback leads to better performance

• Wallace and Hagler (1979) à basketball shooting task
• Verbal encouragement < verbal KP

Nonverbal feedback

Auditory, equipment-based, visual, biofeedback, video.

Skill analysis

Content issues in skill acquisition

1. Knowledge of Results & Knowledge of Performance

Most motor learning situations, provide KP rather than KR as easier for learners to determine KR for themselves

KR (knowledge of results)

• Of many motor skills is obvious and inherent in the skill

Useful in some situations:

• When learner wants to confirm own assessment (“Did I do it right?”)
• Where learner can’t work out outcome for themselves
• Motivational/reinforcing role in keeping learners engaged

KP (knowledge of performance)

• Beneficial because intrinsic feedback on movement technique or form while performing a skill can be more difficult for learner to interpret

2. Descriptive and prescriptive feedback

Descriptive feedback

• Provides details of what elements of skill the skill performance were correct and incorrect
• Higher skilled performers – descriptive sufficient to modify

Prescriptive feedback

• Provides suggestions on what to do or what not to do in future performances of the skill
• More valuable for beginners à less error-detecting/correcting capabilities

3. Congruent and incongruent feedback

Congruent feedback

• Provides information directly related to session objectives or what learners have been instructed to focus on in practice

Incongruent feedback

• Provides information that is not specifically related to session objectives or what learners have been instructed to focus on during practice
• Can be important information but wasn’t specific focus of instruction or practice

4. Correct and incorrect feedback

Providing information on errors or on correct elements of performance?

Correct aspects: Can help with motivation

Incorrect aspects

• Important for skill acquisition
• Learners use error information to correct their performance
• Feedback about errors that prescribes what to do about error is sometimes called corrective feedback

THE ART OF COACHING IS KNOWING WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME THERE IS NO RATIO!

5. Precision of feedback

Qualitative feedback: Information about movement or outcome of movement without numerical value

Quantitative feedback: Information about movement or outcome of movement using numerical value

6. General and specific feedback

General feedback

• Doesn’t reinforce specific behaviour/action
• Often encouragement or reinforcement
• Can motivate and keep on task

Specific feedback

• Reinforces specific behaviour/action
• More valuable for skill acquisition

7. Inaccurate augmented feedback

Inaccurate (or incorrect) feedback can have detrimental effects on learning, especially for beginner

Questioning as feedback in skill acquisition

• USE QUESTIONS TO HELP LEARNER FIND THEIR OWN SOLUTATION TO THEIR OWN PROBLEM.
• By questioning, rather than explicitly providing feedback, can help learners explore possible solutions and use prior knowledge to develop new knowledge. 
• Help engage learners in active knowledge production, rather than being receivers of information to memorise

Types of questions

Convergent questions (closed-ended questions)

• Lead to one correct answer
• Test knowledge and facts
• Instructor has one correct answer in mind when asking
• Associated with lower-order questions
• Lower-order questions: Focus on knowledge and understanding

Divergent questions (open-ended questions)

• Allow more than one correct or feasible response
• Can lead to more analytical or applied responses
• Associated with higher-order questions
• Higher-order questions: Focus on building and creating more knowledge

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Presenting skills and tasks for motor learning and skill acquisition

Lecture #4 Week 4

Presenting information

Presentation: How you share information à via different communication strategies. eg. verbal instructions, cues, demonstrations

Skill presentation: the presentation of what the skill is and how to do skill

Task presentation: how to perform learning activity / your presenting the skill within a learning environment

Serial Position Effect 

The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list as the middle is recalled to a greatly reduced effect. 

Primary Effect: The tendency for the first items in a series of information / the first pieces of information are recalled more effectively and stored in memory more effecitvely than later presented information such as the middle pieces of information.

Recency Effect: The tendency for the last items in a series of information / the most recent information is recalled more effectively and receives greater weight in forming judgement than earlier presented information such as the middle pieces of information.

Verbal Instructions

Implicit and explicit instruction: how much explanation of skill/task and how much learners discover for themselves

• Explicit learning: direct verbal instruction on how to perform a task (traditional instructional approaches)
• Implicit learning: without direct instruction on how to complete those tasks (facilitating/guiding players to explore options, through manipulating task constraints, questioning)
  • by asking them questions: I want you to think about trying a different foot position and see how it feels in comparison to what you were doing.
  • Implicitly learnt skills translate into performance better and “break down” less under fatigue, stress, pressure

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Mental practice and imagery

Lecture 5 W5

Mental practice and imagery

Imagery:

Involves the use of all senses to (re)create an experience in the mind that occurs in the absence of movement.

Mental Practice:

Rehearsing skill without observable movement, with the intention of learning.

• Verbal repetition of movement
• Thinking one’s way through movement
• Mental problem-solving

Effectiveness of mental practice

Can be used at early stages of learning and with elite performers

• Early stages – Problem solving of skill, breaking down skills into stages
• Advanced stages – Reinforcing movement patterns

Types of imagery used in sport

Imagery can be more than visualisation, it’s a gateway to regulate arousal and states.

Variables that influence imagery abilities

Type of skill (that your trying to imagine)

Mental imagery benefits all stages of learning, although later stages appear to benefit more. Probably due to beginners having more difficulty imagining correct performance because their comptency is lower (less familar with skill) and are much further from mastery/competency. Whereas, experienced performers are likely to create an elaborate image of effective performance beacuse their much more competent and accustemed to said skill so they undestand the nuances of it.

Imagery ability

Vividness – clarity and sharpness of imagery. “Lifelikeness” so learner feels like they are in the situation performing the skill.

Controllability – ease and accuracy of generating and manipulating the content of imagery so the learner actually imagines what they intended to imagine.

Imagery perspective

• Internal vs external perspective
• First vs third person viewpoint
• No general concensus to which method is more effective – find what works for you

Theories of mental practice

1. Neuromuscular explanation

• Imagery creates neuromuscular activities similar to physical performance of the skill, creating ‘muscle memory’
• When we produce vivid imagination, we see slight increase in electromyographic activity which we believe helps to prime the muscle for movement
  • = justification for ‘mind muscle connection’ to increase muscle acitviation 

2. Cognitive explanation

• Learners develop a cognitive plan or blueprint for movement in memory
• Helps learners in the early stages of learning to develop an understanding of the skill

3. Functional equivalence and neurophysiological explanation

• Imagery and movement share the same neural pathways during movement preparation – similar patterns of brain activity can be stimuluated just by thinking of the skill, but during execute, those pathways are terminated.
• During imagery of movement, similar brain areas responsible for movement are activated, suggesting functional equivalence of motor imagery and motor movement.

Uses of mental imagery and practice and what components they can improve in our life

Guidelines for effectively using mental practice and imagery

• Use mental practice and imagery regularly and systematically (purposeful – when do you want the learner to learn about the skill?)
• Develop vivid and controllable images with all senses, to create realistic image
• Mental practice in real-time (during compeition) and imagine successful performance of skills using appropriate movement techniques
• Use both internal and external imagery to provide different information on movement to enhance skill acquisition
• Determine whether the learner can even create a vivid realsitic image: Learner of all skill levels should use mental practise for learning new skills and performing well-established skills

Observational learning

• Learning by observing others performing and copying that behavior or skill.
  • Earliest form of learning (i.e. Babies mimic movements and learn in the process)
• Mental practice and observational learning allows learner to simulate sensations and experiences related to skills without actual physical movements.
• Difference between mental practice and observational learning is that the latter is performed in the presence of an external stimuli (i.e. demonstration)
  • Can be a physical demonstration
  • Video demonstration of own performance (i.e. identifying errors)
  • Watching high-level performances or opponents

Neurophysiological underpinnings of observational learning

• Mirror neuron systems
  • A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.^[1][2][3] Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primate species.
  • Activation of certain neurons when a learner performs a movement or observes the same movement performed by someone.
  • Allows learners to internalize actions of others, making seeing the skill seem like doing the skill
  • Responsible for action planning up to before action execution
  • More active in observing familiar compared to unfamiliar skills

Simulation practice

• Use of apparatus that imitates the components of skills without actual performance of the skill itself.
  • Praciticing part of the task in a controlled setting: pretending to putt with a golf club
  • Aim = transfer of simulation into actual context of the sport
  • Apparatus used range for cheap devices to sophisticated simulators (i.e. flight simulators, Virtual Reality)

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Revision

Lecture #6 W6

Lecture 1 Revision

• What is the definition and the 3 main disciplines/focus of Motor Behaviour?

Motor behaviour is the study of movement and movement processes. 

3 Main Discplines:

Motor Learning: Motor learning is the study of how the brain learns, refines and acquires skills.

Motor Control: Motor control is the study of how processes affect movement and how we coordinate movement.

Motor Development: Motor development is the study of how a persons motor skills change, adapt and develop accross a lifetime.

Slide 3

• Why is the study of motor learning important for physical education and exercise/sport science?

Physical education, sport and exercise all rely on the expression of various motor patterns that an individual must learn and refine. The study of motor learning allows us to determine the most accurate effective ways individuals can learn, refine and acquire skills that are critical not only for performance within exercise but for the underpinnings for physical movement literacy and basic skill acquisition. The study of motor learning reveals to us the most effective ways we can get our CNS to faciliate the development of skills.

• Informs education curriculum and child development

Slide 4-6

• What are the main differences between skills and abilities?

Skills are learnt and developed voluntarily through goal directed pracitce.

Abilities are inherent traits expressed through the virtue of ‘talent’ and rely on what someone is ‘naturally gifted’ typically due to genetics.

Slide 8

• What are some ways in which we can characterize/classify motor skills?

Gross: Multi joint multi-planer large movements that utilise multi-muscles with usually higher force output

Fine: Smaller movements that require finer motor control – more about the output of precision than force

Continous: Has a less defined RANDOM beginning and end, usually repeating a cyclical type of repetivie motion. E.G. Running.

Discrete: Has a distinct beginning and end. E.G. Free throw

Serial: Several disrete actions together. E.G. gymnatics routine

Slides 12-19

• Explain Gentile’s (2000) two-dimensional skills classification system

Gentiles system describes there are internal and external ENVIRONMENTAL factors that influence performance of a skill and its variable outcome AND that there are action requirements such as body orientation and object manipulation that determine part of the skills outcome.

Slide 19

Lecture 2 Revision

• Describe the concept of diminishing returns in relation to the amount of practice?

The point of diminishing returns describes the process where the practice input needed to create skill progress dramatically slows compared to the early phases where of learning where progress is almost linear and rapid.

Slide 4

• What are some considerations for performing mass or distributed practice and why?

Massed and distributed learning have both been found to be effective for discrete and continuous skills.

Considerations for massed practice can be, 1, fatigue. Massed practise can create an environment of physical and cognitive fatigue that can adversely affect the motor pattern, thus affect the ability to refine and acquire the skill.

Considerations for DP are the level of skill competency of the learner. DP can be beneficial for novice learners because the rest recovery in between can allow reflection to consolidate learning and improve upon mistakes through reflection.

Slide 17-20

• What are 2 ways in which you can introduce practice variability for leaners in physical education and sport?

Varying the actual skill (interskill)

Varying the envrionment the skill is performed in (intraskill)

Slide 22-25

• Distinguish between constant vs variable AND block vs random practice.

Constant practice describes contiuelsely practacing one variation of a skill

Variable practice desribes practicing a variety of different skills back to back

Blocked practice is sectioning off a specific time period to practice a skill over and over whereas random practie involves randomly allocating skills to be performed  – learner does not practice skill 2 times in a row

Slide 20-21

• How does varying practice benefit schema development?

Varying practise helps the learner adapt and thus compensate for changing variables of the movements. This technique is said to improve schema bceause it enhances cognitive load and improves focus and attention.

Slide 17-18,26

Lecture 3

• What is specificity of practice?

Specicity of practice is attempting to match the conditions of when/how the skill is performed in real time by matching conditions such as envrionment, speed of movement, fatigue, other players etc.

Slide 4

• When should we use whole or part practice in instructing motor skills?

Part practice is typically beneficial for teaching movements to novices that have many component parts. Breaking a skill down into its seperate motor components allows the learner to reduce complexity of the skill and practice parts of the skill before integrating them together.

Whole practice is typically beneficial for non-novices who are familar with a skill and do not need to reduce complexity of a skill but usually need to add more variables to challenge them to adapt. Whole practice is a great opportunity to get many repeptitions to master one skill.

Slide 10-11

• What are fractionisation, segmentation, and simplification?

Fractionisation: Is breaking the skill down into its component parts and practing them in isolation before combining them together.

Segmentation: Is practicing a segment component of a skill, then adding on another segment, then another etc until the whole skill is being practiced and has been integrated.

Simplification: Is breaking down the whole skill and reducing the overall complexity of each part,

Slide 12

• Provide examples of how you can modify equipment and tasks to influence task difficulty of striking, catching and throwing skills.

Striking: Can be modified by changing the speed/tempo at which one performs the skill or get someone to throw an onject at a faster or slower pace at you to challenge reaction time.

Catching: Challenging balance and propriception by standing on 1 leg.

Throwing: Closing eyes, using larger or smaller balls.

Slide 13-14

Lecture 4

• Why should you keep instructions short and simple (KISS)?

Information overload is a problem in coaching where too much information/cueing is given to an individual which can cause people to get overwhelmed and not know what to focus on during the movement distruing motor control and skill acquisition.

Also the serial position effect (recency and primacy) effect tenedency for the brain to typically remember the first and last pieces of information in a series to be remembered make a neurological case for keeping information straight forward and to 1-2 points as the middle information typically is forgetten when trying to recall.

Slide 11

• What are implicit and explicit learning?

Implicit learning describes the guidence of learning through techniques like ‘questioning’ – its a way to guide people to find their own answers rather than them being given the answer.

Explicit learning gives direct information/instruction on how to perform a skill.

Slide 13

• What information can demonstrations communicate to learners?

The exact manner to which perform a skill: speed, position, phases, force ..

Slide 15

• What are the differences when demonstrating to beginner and expert learners?

Novice: Information overload, simple cueing, basic foundation first, ask if they understand or if they have q’s, simple explicit feedback

Expert: Can be more technical, speed of movement, may not have to repeat as many times, implicity feedback to guide more advanced learning

Slide 17

• When and how often should you provide demonstration?

Depends on training age/comptency of learner relative to the skill being shown:

Novice: More thorough demo with repeated simple cueing, assistive guidennce

Advanced: Fewer demo’s but can be ..v

Slide 22-23

Lecture 5

• What are mental practice and imagery?

Mental practice is the process of rehearsing a skill or series of skills verbally or mentally with the intention to reine learning.

Imgary descibres viusalisation sensory techniques to mentally rehearse and practice tasks/skills to improve performance.

Slide 3

• How effective are mental practice and imagery for motor learning?

Both appear somwhwat effective for refining the neromuscular motor patterns. Imagery creates similar neuromusclar activation in the brain to actually performing the skill. It can be greatly beneficial for experoienced athletes to use imagery to prepare for serious competiion that reuiqres peak performance – positive effects on arousal/focus/confidence AND can have positive effects for novices looking  to problem solve a skill and break it down.

Slide 4

• Describe the differences between neuromuscular, cognitive and functional equivalence/neurophysiological explanations for mental imagery.

Neuromusclar explantion: imagery can be used to create a similar neromusular activation and brain acitvity similar to performing the actual movement.

Cognitive: More sensory and cerebral in nature, describes the ehancement of the understanding of a skill.

Functional: Similar brain acitvity can be seen by thinking of a skill and actually performing it.

Slide 8-9

• Outline and describe the 5 types of mental imagery?

Motivational specific

Motivational general-mastery

Motivational general-arousal

Cognitive specific

Cognitive general

Slide 5

• List and describe 5 ways in which you can use mental imagery?

Slide 10-11

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The Classifications of Motor Skills

Lecture #7 W8

Hierarchy of Movements & Motor Actions

Movements

Specific patterns of motion among joints and body  segments for  accomplishing  action goals

Types of Movements

Reflexive

• Knee Jerk
• Eye BlinkMoro reflex: a sudden change in gravitational force for survival
• Fight / Flight Response

Infant reflexes: 

• Suck Reflex: When the roof of the infant’s mouth is touched the baby will start to suck. Not fully developed until 36w month 9 of pregnancy. Premature babies may have weak or immature sucking ability because of this.
• Moro reflex: a sudden change in gravitational force for survival. Develops between 25–30 weeks of gestation and disappears between 3–6 months of age.
• Rooting: Stroking of the infants cheek > head turns to the direction of the side thats touched
• Gripping: Placing object in infants hand
• Toe Curling: Stroking sole of foot > infant curls toes
• Galant: Stroking of infants lower back > infant curves toward the side it was stroked

Volitional / Voluntary

• Reach to grasp a cup
• Striking a tennis ball

Circuitry of Reflexive Movements

1. Touch hot object
2. Transduce heat into a neural signal
3. Neural signals sends afferent signal from limb to spinal cord (skips brain)
4. Spinal cord interneuron sends neural impulse
5. Interneuron sends efferent signal AP to the limb to create the reflex action and contract muscle

• Phasic movement in response to a stimulus
• Neural pathway is called a reflex arc (RA)
• RA mediates movement before sensory signals reach  the brain

Afferent Pathway: Sensory
Efferent Pathway: Motor

• Patella tendon tapped
• Quadriceps muscle stretched
• Muscle spindles stretched
• Sends sensory signals to spinal cord
• Interneuron in spinal cord sends signals via motor neuron to activated  quadriceps muscle

Circuitry of Voluntary Movements

1. Intention (called something else that prof will mention later)
2. Stimuli Identification
   • Perceiving the various variables (visual, kinesthetic, tactile, audotory) that contribute to movement
3. Response Selection
   • Integrating sensory information with past experiences to make an optimal decision. What is the best decision in this situation?
4. Response Programming
   • Determined the best action and transform the intention to the neural signal
5. Action
6. Examples, e.g. static & dynamic

Motor Actions

• Combination of movements (what’re movements again?!) for the attainment of a goal.
• Motor actions typically develop into motor skills over time.

Novice

• Movements unrefined, uncoordinated
• High level of errors
• Intended goal not attained
• Movements remained as ‘Motor Actions’

Expert

• High level of refined, coordinated movements
• Low level of errors
• Intended goal consistently attained
• Coordinated movements resulting in purposeful motor actions  develop to become ‘Motor Skills’

Criteria for Classification as Motor Skills

Consistency in achieving task goals

Efficiency

Processes related to:

• Stimulus Identification
• Response Selection
• Response Programming

Reproducible under wider range of conditions and circumstances

We want to make these 3 efficiency processes more efficient for a more efficient CNS.

CNS Efficiency: Making More Efficient Athletes #Post

Pyramidal Cells

• Pyramidal neurons are the primary excitation units of the mammalian prefrontal cortex and the corticospinal tract
• Very fast transmission from brain to spinal cord. Very crucial for quick voluntary actions and making athletes more powerful. 
• To make an athlete more efficient is to improve the excitation of the pyramidal cells.

Making CNS More Efficient:

Making the mylonation more efficient. You could develop more astrocytes on the mylon sheath or give instructions to the myelin sheath to insulate more efficiently.

Motor Unit: 

• A motor unit is the lower a-motor neuron and all the muscle fibres it innervates.
• Rememnber a motor unit houses muscles fibres.
• So we want to recruit large motor units (motor neurons) that have fast conduction velocities and high recruitment thresholds that will end up recruiting fast-twitch muscle fibres.

Motor Unit Size

• Motor units vary in size. The size is determined by the total number of muscle fibres innervated. Some motor units innervate hundreds or thousands of fibres, such as in the legs, whereas other motor units may innervate as few as one muscle fibre, such as in the eye. The size of the motor unit influences the type of control available in the muscle. Smaller motor units facilitate fine motor control, whereas large motor units produce more force which can facilitate gross motor control.
• The amount of force generated by a muscle is influenced by the number of muscle fibres that are activated. Thus, force is controlled by the number of motor units that are recruited.

Motor Control

How neuromuscular system functions to activate and coordinate muscles and limbs  involved in the performance  of a motor skill

• Central nervous system
• Peripheral nervous system
• Muscular system

 

Motor Learning

• Acquisition of novel motor skills
• Performance enhancement of learned or highly experienced motor skills
• Re-acquisition of skills that are difficult to perform or cannot be performed due to injury/disease
• Improvement in the capability of a person to perform a skill as a result of practice or experience

Motor Control Versus Motor Learning

Control

• Overt, observable behaviour
• Execution of a motor action at a
  • Specific time
  • Specific situation

Learning

• Not directly observable
• Infer from characteristics of performance over  a period of time

Motor Development

Human development in the motor domain from infancy (even in utero where movements are performed) to old age with specific interest  in issues related to motor  learning or motor control

–Physical & Functional

–Coordination between organs

• Cardiovascular
• Cardiorespiratory
• Neuromuscular
• Neurophysiological

–Deterioration of the above

Why Classify Motor Skills?

• Understand movement variables and environmental variables that influence skill performance
• Coaches / teachers / therapists can better design practice to facilitate learning

One-Dimensional Classification

Size of Musculature

Gross

• Large musculatures
• Lower level of precision
• Higher level of force generation

Fine

• Small musculatures
• Higher level of precision
• Lower level of force generation

• Start & End Point of Movement

Discrete

• Clearly defined movement ‘Start’ & ‘End’

Continuous

• Arbitrary ‘Start’ & ‘End’
• Repetitive / Cyclical

Serial

• Involves a series of discrete skills

Stability of Environmental Context

Weaknesses with 1-D Classification

• Does not capture complex properties of certain skills
• Thus provide inadequate information for practitioners to make decisions about
  • Instructions
  • Practice routines
  • Therapy regimens

Gentile’s 2-D Taxonomy

Environmental Context

Nonregulatory (Stationary) 

• Environmental features that do not have influence or only indirect influence on movement characteristics.
• E.G. Spectators in sport.

Regulatory

• Environmental features to which movements must conform to achieve action goal.
• E.G. Defenders moving to block a shot.

Intertrial Variability

• Properties of skill performance that change from one trial to the next

Function of Actions

Body Stability: Stationary

Body Transport: In Motion

Object Manipulation: Manipulating an object

Application of Taxonomy

• Insights into demands of skills imposed on performer
• Evaluation of movement capability and limitations
• Selection of progressively functional activities to help persons overcome skill performance deficits and ncrease performance capabilities
• Charting patient’s progress towards certain physical activity performance goals

The Measurement of  Motor Performance

Performance Outcome Measures

A category of motor skill performance measures that indicates the results  of performing a motor skill

Quantitative: Objective data driven outcome measreument (e.g. something measured on a scale).

Qualitative: Subjective intagible opinion/perspective based

Why is <100ms a false start in 100m sprinting? Can you react in <100ms?

1. The time it takes for the auditory signal to go from the ear to the brainstem is about 10 ms.
2.  It then takes roughly 50-70 ms to send a signal from the brainstem to the (distal) muscles via the spinal cord. For longer athletes this process will take longer than for shorter athletes because the signal has to cover a longer distance to the limbs.
3.  As soon as the signal reaches the muscle, different electrochemical processes take place that lead to muscle contraction. These processes last about 6 ms
4. Finally, there is a mechanical delay (muscle slack) in which the muscle and tendon in which the muscles and tendon have to generate enough tension to initiate joint movement. The duration of this delay is very variable and depends on the joint position (and therefore the muscle length) and the pre-tension [7]. In sprinting research, this delay is estimated to be around 15-20 ms
5. When we sum all delays, we arrive at a minimum response time of approximately 3+ 10 + 50 + 6 + 15 = 84 ms between the start signal and the first application of force to the starting blocks. In other words, theoretically it would be possible to react within 84 ms to the start signal.

Performance Production Measures

A category of motor skill performance measures that indicates specific aspects of motor control system during the performance of a motor skill

Kinematics: Displacement, velocity, acceleration

Kinetics: Joint torque

Neurophysiological: EMG, EEG, MEG, fMRI

Kinematics

Description of motion using limb or body parts displacement, velocity and acceleration

Displacement

Describes changes in spatial positions of a limb or joint during movement relative to its start position?

Velocity

Describes rate of change of a limb position with respect to time.

Acceleration

Describes change in velocity of limb parts during movement

Kinetics

The study of the role of force as a cause of movement

• Human motion involves rotation of body segments around their joints
• Joint TorqueL Effects of forces acting on rotation 

Force Plates: Measure ground reaction  forces

Neurophysiological Measures

Concern the functioning of the brain in relation to other body systems

• Brain and muscles
• Brain and blood flow
• Brain and electrical/magnetic fields

Electromyography (EMG)

• A measurement technique that records the electrical activity of a muscle or group of  muscles
• Electrodes attached to the skin or inserted into the muscle

• Raw EMG recordings (recorded in mV)
• Baseline and Active EMG activity
• Root-Mean-Square (RMS) index
  • • A calculation to make negative values positive to then calculate the mean relevent for researches and people using EMGs.
• Expressed as % of maximum contraction

Electroencephalography (EEG)

• The recording of brain activity by the detection of electrical activity in specific areas on the  surface of the cortex by  surface electrodes placed on a  person’s scalp
• Record electrical fields exiting the skull
• Brain activity recorded as waves and identified on basis of oscillations per second
• EEG records electrical activity that excsist on the scalp

Gamma = High level integration of tasks. The fastest brain activity. It is responsible for cognitive functioning, learning, memory, and information processing.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

• The recording of brain activity by the detection of magnetic field  generated by neuronal  current
• Detectors in the helmet record magnetic fields exiting the skull
• High spatial and temporal resolution
• Useful for isolating epilespy and seisures and where it occurs in the brain
• Offers both sptaial + temperoal resolution so is now becoing the gold standard brain activity measuring machine 

Functional Magnetic Resonance  Imaging (fMRI)

• Brain scanning technique that assesses changes in blood flow by detecting  blood oxygenation  characteristics while a person is performing a  skill in the MRI scan
• Provide images of active brain areas at a specified time
• Quantification of brain activation

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMI)

• Noninvasive method of assessing brain activity that involves delivering a  short burst (pulse) of  magnetic field to a  specific area of the brain
• Magnetic pulse temporarily disrupts normal brain activity. Why is that important…
• In order to evaluate if activity from a brain area is crucial for function. By disrupting a certain part of the brain then telling the subject to perform x movement we can acertain if that part of the brain is responible for that type of movement.

Motor Response Measures

Reaction Time (RT): Interval of time between the onset of a signal (stimulus) and the initiation of a response

Movement Time (MT): Interval of time between onset of a movement to  the completion of that movement

Response Time = RT + MT

Responding to Auditory Stimuli to Move

1. The auditory signal enters the ear and is transduced to a neural signal and reach the auditory cortex – this is stimulus identification.  
2. Response selection to dictate the intent of the movement (what is the best selection in this cirumstance>)
3. Response programming: transforming intention in the primrary motor cortex into neural signal down the spinal cord to exit the spinal cord to synapse to motor units and muscle fibres
4. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE RESPONSE TIME 

EMG Correlates of Reaction Time

Premotor Compenent: SI > RS > RP

Motor Component: What is happening in this phase when there’s no movement until begining of the response. Because it takes time for the muscle to generate tension and recruit motor units to exceed the inertia of your limb. 

Inertia: A body remains at rest or at a constant velocity, unless a net external force acts on it. (Newtons 1st law)

Types of Reaction Time

Choice RT = longer response time.

Error Measures

To measure severity of motor leraning

Absolute Error (AE)

• Unsigned deviation from target
• Tells magnitude of error without regard to direction of deviation

Constant Error (CE)

• Signed deviation from target
• Tells Magnitude and direction of error

Variable Error (VE)

• Error related to performance variability
• Standard deviation of CE scores

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Neuromotor Basis For Motor Control

Lecture 8 W9

2 Classes of Cells: Nerve & Glial

1. Nerve Cells (Neurons)

Neurons are signalling unit of the Nervous System

4 Regions

1. Cell Body; Soma (black cirlce)
2. Dendrites
3. Axon
4. Presynaptic/Axon Terminals

Dendrites

• Extensions from a neuron’s cell body
• F: Receive neural impulses from other neurons

Cell Body:

• Houses nucleus, which contains genes for driving function within the cell and mitochondria which use ATP is for opening and closing voltage gated ion channels IN THE BRAIN
• Endoplasmic reticulum; synthesis of cell protein

Axon

• Extensions from a neuron’s cell body that transmit neural impulses to other neurons, structures in the CNS, or muscles
• Convey signals over distances 0.1mm to 2m
  • Longest axon is the sciatic nerve running from sacrum to lower limbs
• Summation of signals at axon hillock: the axon hillock is the place where it sums up the charges just before the threshold potential.
• Action potential is generated and triggered at initial segment of axon
• Once generated, amplitude of AP remains constant as it propagates along the axon. 
  • Myelination dictates speed: The AP jumps across to the node of Ranvier via myelination, there are holes, it will slow down, then the AP get’s re-generated again via myelination 
  • Muliple sclerosis (cells devour it’s own mylon) so it travels slower

Saltatory = jumping, leaping

EXAM Q: What type of neurons carry signal from the execution signal (brain) down the spinal cord? Pyramidal cells

Humans have monosynaptic nerves …

Presynaptic Terminal

• The end of the axon
• Provide signals transmission for neurotransmitters (ACTH), which are chemical signals passed on to other neurons or muscles
• Synaptic vesicles contain neurotransmitters
• Released into synaptic cleft
• The neurotransmitter binds to gated channels of Postsynaptic Neuron

How Neurocommunication Occurs After AP Is Generated In The Brain

AP reaches axon terminal > CA2+ enters and binds to synaptic vesicles > when CA2+ binds the vesicles they begin to move towards the membrane of the axon terminal > when it fuses to the axon terminal membrane it will release neurotransmitters (primarily ACTH) > float over the cleft and bind to the dendrites of the next cell > the channels will open > and sends signal to cell as charges 

2. Glial Cells; Neurons

• Oligodendrocytes (CNS)
• Schwann Cells (PNS)

Functions

Both have the similar function’s just in different places of the nervous system

• Development of myelin
  • Myelination will enhance neural signal transmission
• Enhance neural signal transmission
• Supply nutrients
• Provide insulation between axon neurons preventing them from touching each other

Central & Peripheral Nervous System

Central: Brain & Spinal Cord

Peripheral: all neural pathways outside of the CNS

• Afferent/Sensory Neurons
• Efferent/Motor Neurons

Afferent/Sensory Neurons

Receive and transmit neural signals to CNS

Signal Modality:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Somatosensory
• Vestibular (provide sensory information about postural stability)
• Proprioceptive

Optic Neurons

• Provides you with Retinal Disparity which is 3D perception
• 3-D Perception
• Optic Flow describes perceiving moving objects in space
• Gives motion Perception
• The thalamus is like a router that sends information to the visual cortex from the optic nerve

Somatosensory Neurons

Each type of neuron is responsible for a different type of somatosensory sensation. Won’t be tested on this.

Vestibular (Inner Ear) Neurons

Fluid inside your head provides sensory information about postural stability and how much the head has been displaced.

Most neurons in the vestibular nuclei receive convergent inputs from the otolith end organs and semicircular canals. Thus neurons not only encode rotations, but also respond to linear (inertial) accelerations of motion including the constant influence of gravity.

Semi-circular canals canals track movement in various planes

• Horizontal (left & right)
• Anterior (nodding)
• Posterior (move head to touch shoulder)
• Provide sensory input for experience of rotary movements

All this Provides sensory input for experience of rotary movements

Otoliths

Otoliths will give you linear acceleration perception

• Saccule
• Utricle

 

Proprioceptive Neurons

Muscle spindles

• Stretch receptors located within skeletal muscles
• Detect changes in the length of the muscle
• S for it detects ‘Stretch’
• The muscle spindle is excitatory, and it’s in the skeletal striated muscles, which detect rate of change of the muscle length.
• It consists of a sensory receptor, intrafusal muscle fibres and a capsule. It is the extrafusal muscle fibres that contract not the intrafusal fibres

Golgi tendon organs

• Senses changes in muscle tension and react to how much tension/froce is in the tendon and that sends information to the brain
• Lie at the origin and insertion of a muscle (muscle–tendon junction) rather than in the tendon proper.
• It inhibits force production. It detects tension on the muscle. If there’s too much tension, it inhibits muscular contraction.
• That’s why one of the goals of performance training is to override inhibition, and maximize excitation of the NS via the muscle spindles

Joint capsule receptors

• Detects somatosensory information within joints via ‘type-endings’
• Joint receptors are located in the joint capsule and ligaments. They detect changes in force and rotation at the joint and changes in joint angle.

 

Inter-Neurons

• Can be Inhibitory to stop contracting or Excitatory to contract
• Enable communication between sensory or motor neurons and the CNS

Local Interneuron

• Short axon
• Form circuits with nearby neurons to analyze small pieces of information

Relay Interneuron

• Long axons and connect circuits of neurons in one region of the brain with those in other regions

Motor Neurons

Transmit neural signals from CNS to skeletal muscles

Upper Motor Neuron: sends neural impulse down the pyramidal cell and synapse with the interneuron (ventral horn).

Lower Motor Neuron synapse with muscle fibres

Components of the Brain

Cerebrum

• Brain structure that is superior and superficial to the spinal cord
• The folds of the cerebrum are called convolution which are structured to maximise the neurons that can be housed in the space

Gray Matter

Cell bodies of neurons

White Matter

Axons of neurons

Cerebral Cortex

2-5 mm thick outer layer of the cerebrum

Corpus Callosum

Bundle of neuronal fibers that connect the 2 hemispheres to maintain communication EXAM Q

Cerebral Lobes

Frontal Lobe

Executive functions, e.g. planning for the future, judgement, decision- making, attention span, inhibition (RESPONSE SELECTION)

Parietal lobe

Integrates sensory information among various modalities

Occipital Lobe

Visual processing

Visual processing center divided into 5 layers, V1 (inferior) – V5 (superior)

Temporal Lobe

Processes sensory input, i.e. auditory, visual

Motor Related Brain Areas

Stimulus Identification

Area 1,2,3 @ Primary Sensory Cortex – Simple sensory information e.g. detecting touch

Area 5 & 7 @ Secondary Sensory Cortex – Integrating more complex sensory information

Response Selection

Communication between SI brain areas and area 6; SMA (supplementary motor area), PMA

Response Programming

• Area 4 M1: Primary Motor Cortex – ‘Execution Center’
• Transform neural signal to intension via the M1 in the Primary Motor Cortex

Cortical Homunculus

• Representation of a small man in folklore/alchemy
• Superimposed over the top of M1 motor and sensory cortices
• Each part of the M1 represents a different part of the body that is stimulates

Motor Related Brain Areas

Supplementary Motor Area (SMA)

• Postural stabilization
• Coordination during bimanual action
• Involved in Control of sequences of movements (e.g. musical skills)

Premotor Motor Area (PMA)

• Involved in Movement planning (response selection) to decide the best response
• Sensory guidance of movement

Cerebellum

• Located infero-posteriorly of cerebrum
• Function: Execution of smooth, accurate & coordinated  movements
• Motion Memory (a Japanese group found evidence that motor memory may be stored in the cerebellum)
• More cells in the cerebellum than all the cells in the cerebrum

Basal Ganglia

• Interconnected with the cerebral cortex

Functions

• Preparation (response selection) of voluntary motor movements
• Procedural learning
• Emotion

Motor Unit Recruitment

Motor Unit: Traditional Definition: A a-motor neuron and number of all the muscle fibres it innervates

NTU: MU: A lower motor neuron and the it’s number of synapses

3 different types of definitions of MU depends on the context

Henneman Size Principle

Henneman Size Principle: MU are recruited systematically from smallest to largest until the summation of all those MUs gives you the movement that is required AKA until combined force generation yields criterion level. Criterion level = the critical value of force generation that instantaneously exceeds the inertia.

• Smallest MUs are recruited first and have very few synapses
• Large Mus have are recruited fast and have a lot of synapses and produce large force
• That’s why we train. To help recruit MUs more efficiently to prepare for the specific task we are wanting to be better for.

 

 

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Motor Control Theories

Lecture #9 W10

Coordination

Motor control centres around ‘coordination’ – coordination of the head, because once the head get out position everything else becomes uncoordinated.

• Patterning of the Head, Body and Limb Motions relative to the patterning of environmental objects and events (Turvey,  1990)
• Involves organization of muscle activations to accomplish an intended goal
• Organism- and Environment-specifics

Organism-Specifics of Coordination

• Concerns the relationship among Head, Body and Limbs at a specific point in time during skill performance
• Postural stability must be established before commencing purposeful movement
• Coordination challenges occur when you’re off the ground, e.g. gymnastics, diving.
• Optimal limb-to-limb angle relationship

Angle-Angle Diagram For Kicking

Purpose of this study is to illustrate coordination between hip and knee joint angle for expert and novice soccer player

The black dot is the point of contact

Expert

• Prior to contact
  • More Knee flexion & Hip extension compared to novice
• Post contact
  • More Knee extension & Hip flexion compared to novice

Environment-Specifics of Coordination

How does our environment effect our motor output:

• Concerns pattern of Head, Body and Limb Motion in the context of  changes in  environmental objects  and events
• Characteristics of the environment constrain the human body to act  in certain ways in order  to achieve the intended goal

Degrees of Freedom (DOF) Problem

Degrees of freedom describes the extent of freedom a limb/joint/muscle has to perform an action.

• Since coordination of Head, Body & Limbs is crucial for proficient motor performance
• “How does the nervous system control the many muscles and joint actions to produce complex movement patterns?”

Nikolai Bernstein

1896-1966, Soviet Neurophysiologist

• To perform a well-coordinated movement, the nervous system has to solve a movement problem. Why is it a problem? Because you need a variable number of muscular components to recruit and move.
• What he coined as the “Degrees of Freedom Problem”

Degrees of Freedom

• Number of independent elements or components in a control system
• Number of ways each component can vary
• Compare DOF of DPJ, MPJ, & PPJ

Degrees of Freedom Problem

• A control problem in the design of a complex system that must produce a specific result
• Problem concerns how the system constrains its many degrees of freedom in order to produce the specific result

DOF Problem In Motor Learning

A DOF problem occurs when learning a novel motor skill because the brain has not coordinated efficient motor patterns to create ideal limb / muscle action:

When learning a novel motor skill,

• Problem is augmented when it involves the control of many joints
• Brain does not know which muscles to activate to bring about combination  of optimal limb movements crucial for skill performance
• “Redundancy of muscle activations”: A justification for programming frequent variability for fat loss (higher energy expenditure)
  • The CNS learns which muscles to activate and which muscles to make redundant and not activate. At first, with novice learners they end up utilising musculature indiscriminately, i.e. they recruit motor unit pools in muscles they don’t need for the movement, therefore, expending higher amounts of energy. Whereas with highly trained people have developed efficient neural pathways to recruit motor units pools it has learnt it ‘needs’.
• Co-contraction agonist-antagonist muscles = your joint freezes
• Constrained, impeded, unrefined and uncoordinated movements
• Large amount of movement errors
• Not cost effective
• Intended goal of motor actions not achieved

Control Systems In Motor Control

Open-Loop Control

A control system in  which all information  needed to initiate  and carry out an  action as planned is  contained in the  initial instructions to  the effectors

Closed-Loop Control

A control system in  which, during the  course of an action,  feedback is compared  against a standard or  reference  to enable  an action to be  carried out as  planned

Open-Loop Control

• Aka ‘Feedforward Control’
• Fast movements
• Movement errors cannot be corrected
• Sensorimotor system is not completed by sensory feedback

Closed-Loop Control

• Aka ‘Feedback Control’
• Movement duration exceeding 200ms benefits from feedback control (Kandel et al., 2013)
• Movements may be corrected after execution
• Sensorimotor system is completed by sensory feedback

Motor Program-Based Theory

Motor Program

Also called: Internal Model, Motor Plan, Motor Template

• Is a memory representation that stores information needed to perform action
• Motor programs are memory codes like an excel file. For novices you don’t have the memory code which is why in ‘response selection’ it doesn’t have the information to rely upon, in the form of memory codes.

 

• Previously discussed in this module ideas of Intention, Memory Code, Action Plan
• Analogous to Internal Model, Motor Plan, Motor Template
• Motor programs were posited to control specific movements or sequences of movements

What do you think might be some problems with the tenets of Motor Program-Based Theory?

• Storage space and sites to account for millions of memory codes for every single specific action. Does the brain really have that much storage space?
• Computation to select the best motor program is an immensely complicated process

Schmidt’s Hypothesis (1)

Generalized Motor Program (GMP)

• Memory representation of a class of actions
• Within a particular class of action, movements share  common Invariant Features (IF)
• IF are a unique set of characteristics that defines a GMP and  does not vary from one performance of an action to another
  • There exists the most optimal GMP patterns which get characterised by invariant features that there’s one specific way to perform an action efficiently.

`Examples of IF

• Relative time – Percentage of total time required by each component of a skill
• Order / Sequence of movement

Schmidt’s Hypothesis (2)

• Once GMP is determined, movement-specific Parameters are incorporated to produce a specific motor outcome to meet the demands of a situation or  context
• Parameters are variables that can be varied from one performance of a skill to another
• Variables of skill are added to the IF of GMP before a person can perform a skill to meet specific movement demands of a situation

Schmidt’s Schema Theory

Schmidt’s schema theory is but one of many theories that explain motor program based theory

• Schema is a rule or set of rules that serves to provide the basis for a decision
• Within this theory, schema is postulated as an abstract representation of rules that govern movement
• Its mechanisms involve abstracting important information from past experiences and combining them into a type of rule

Components Of Schema Theory

GMP: E.G. Throwing / Kickin / Walking / Running

Motor Response Schema (MRS)

Provides rules (parameters) to GMP for the  performance of a skill in a given situation

Within generalised motor patterns (GMPs) are specific motor response schemas (MRS) that give variations to general motor patterns.

The point here in this image is that the GMP are all very similar within all these activities but for each one you need to have a unique MRS to account for the specifics of the schema.

Dynamical Systems Theory

• An approach describing the control of coordinated movement that emphasizes the role of information in the environment and the dynamic properties of the body and  limbs
• Views human motor system as a complex, non-linear system
• Interrogates interaction between elements in the system
• Within the Karl Newell’s Constraints Model, these elements are Environment, Organism & Task

Fundemental to the Dynamic System Theory is the idea of Stability

• A behavioral steady state of a system that  represents a preferred behavioral state and  that an unstable system will spontaneously  return to a stable state after it is slightly  perturbed

Nonlinear Changes in Movement  Behaviour

• Rhythmic finger movements in the transverse plane
• In the Anti-phase pattern, finger muscles contract in an alternating fashion
• In the In-phase pattern, homologous finger muscles contract simultaneously
• Start with Anti-phase finger movements
• Movement speed increases past a threshold, a spontaneous switch to In-phase finger movements occurs
• after the switch has occurred and the movement rate decreases, In-phase finger movements persist
• When you increase the speed it will become an unstable state, and once it reaches in-phase coordination it has reached a new stable steady state.

Dynamical Systems Theory

Attractors / Attractor States

• Behavioral steady states of systems.
• In terms of human coordinated movement, attractors  characterize preferred behavioral states (H-K-B Model)

Order Parameters

• Variables that define the overall behaviour of a system

Control Parameters

Variables that can freely change to;

• 1) influence the stability and character of the order parameter
• 2) shift a system’s behaviour from an unstable to a stable state

Self-Organization

• Emergence of a specific stable pattern of behaviour  due to certain conditions characterizing a situation  rather than to a specific control mechanism  organizing the behaviour

Coordinative Structures

Collections of muscles and joint actions that are  constrained by the nervous system to act  cooperatively to produce an action

• Task-specific ensemble of muscle activations / movements / joint actions

Perception-Action Coupling

• Coordination of visual object perception limb movement required to  achieve action goal
• Spatial and temporal coordination of vision and the hands or feet that  enables people to perform  Hand-Eye and Foot-Eye  coordination skills

EXAM Q: Use motor program base theory to explain the characteristics how a beginner learns a skill?

1. There was no memory code for the specific skill > then practice was instilled > the memory codes became more accurate > the brain transfers those memory codes to accurate neural signals.

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Performance & Motor Control  Characteristics of Functional Skills

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Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off

• A characteristic of motor skill performance in which the speed at which a skill is performed is influenced by movement accuracy demands
• The ‘Trade-Off’ is that increasing speed yields decreasing accuracy, & vice versa
• Inverse relationship between Accuracy & Movement Speed

Examples

• Pitching a fastball for a baseball strike
• Playing a piano piece at a fast tempo
• Speed typing
• Other examples

Fitts’ Law (1954)

A human performance law specifying the movement time for an aiming movement when the  distance to move and the target  size are known

• a & b = constants
• a is Y-intercept of T-ID function
• b is Gradient of T-ID function

As ID becomes bigger that movement time will increase. 

Open- & Closed-Loop Motor Control  Processes Related To S-A Trade-Off

Woodworth (1899) hypothesized that 2 motor control processes operate during rapid limb movement to a target

Initial movement of limb into vicinity of target

• Open-loop control: (once it goes out it doesn’t come back there is no feedback)
• Initial movement speed, direction & accuracy are specified in code

‘Homing In’ phase of limb movement

• Closed-loop control
• Visual feedback about limb’s relative position to that of target is used to enhance accuracy landing on target

Functional Skills Involving Open- & Closed-Loop Control In S-A Trade-Off

• Reaching To Touch A Button On The Phone.
  • Sometimes you reach out to touch the button too fast and miss it.
• Reaching To Put A Key Into A Keyhole.
• Reaching-To-Grasp An Object

The difference between the 2 is the red pathway. This pathway will only be functional when the movement exceeds a certain latency (the time it takes to do a task).

Comparator: Comparing the ideal action to the actual muscle action – if the comparator doesn’t match the actual movement there is movement error.

Role Of Vision In Reaching Movements

Movement Preparation Phase

• Vision determines regulatory conditions in the environment that directly affects movement output
• E.G. The Size, shape , weight of object
  • Key, Tennis Racket
• Size , location , spatial properties of target
  • Keyhole, Tennis Ball
• Along with other sensory information, once the neural signal comes in CNS prepares code to initiate and carry out intended action

Role Of Vision In Reaching  Movements

Initial Flight Phase of Movement plays a minor role in this phase.

You mainly rely on propriception arising from Muscles Spindles, Golgi Tendon Organs & Joint Capsule Receptors provides  information about limb position,  displacement & velocity in space

EXAM: What are the components of proprioceptors?

Golgi tendon (detect muscule tension), muscle spindles (excitatory – detect rate of change of muscle length) and joint capsule receptors (detects somatosensory information)

Role Of Vision In Reaching Movements

Termination Phase: Phase close to the target

• Vision of the limb and target is crucial
• Conveys movement accuracy information to the CNS
• Determine if movement corrections are needed to achieve action goal

Reaching-To-Grasp Movements

Invariant Features of Grip Aperture

• Regardless of object size & distance, hand closure occurs at about two-thirds of total  movement time

Fitts’ Law

• Smaller handle results in longer movement time
• Reduction in limb velocity as hand approaches target to enhance accuracy

Catching Movements

• No arm movement for initial phase of ball flight. When the ball starts its trajectory towards you you won’t move for a certain amount of time.
• Emergence of elbow flexion & finger extension
• Subtle hand withdrawal movements after 50% of ball flight time
• For successful catches, upper arm accelerated about shoulder joint to transport hand to spatial position  required for intercepting the ball  (Williams & McCririe (1988)

Role of Vision In Catching

• Vision provides advance information for Stimulus Identification
• Combination of Extrinsic & Intrinsic sensory information enables CNS to code signals for spatially & temporally precise arm, hand & finger movements
• Configuration of hands and fingers to match features of object is based on visual information obtained prior to rather than on tactile information obtained after ball contact (Savelsbergh et al.,  1993)
• Tactile & Proprioceptive feedback enable CNS to make grip force adjustments necessary for object manipulation (Williams & McCririe, 1988)

• It appears that visual information during for catching

What about visual information of object in flight between these two time periods?

• According to Elliott et al. (1994), the CNS is capable of using intermittent ‘Snapshots’ (about 20 msec) of the ball flight characteristics to extract essential information for catching  the ball

What does this suggest about the types of control involved?

Our body must instil ‘predictive control’ (that’s what ‘snapshots’ means – taking about 20ms) to predict where an object will be in order to react optimally to it. Thus certain muscles will pre-contract to predict postural instability that is forthcoming. 

Long jump strides before take off. The last handful of dots is the jumpers adjusting their gait cycle to make the jump – this is a demonstration of Fitt’s law in sports movements. 

Initial Phase: Stride length increased at a relatively constant rate; Acceleration

Mid-Phase: Consistent stride length; Optimal approach speed

Late Phase: Small inconsistencies during Initial & Mid-Phase had cumulative, effects on movement errors. Stride-length adjustments necessary for foot placement accuracy

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Defining & Assessing Stages of  Motor Learning

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How Do We Know if  Motor Learning Has  Taken Place? These 5 Criteria: ICSPAR

EXAM: Remember these 5.

1. Improvement

• Performance of motor skill shows better scores/indices/measur  able quantity over a  period of time

2. Consistency

• Performance characteristics become more similar over a period of time between sessions.

3. Stability

• External, physical environment
• Internal, mental states
• Little or no influence on skill performance

4. Persistence

• Does your motor learning persist and maintain over years or do you lose the majority of it?
• Improved performance capability that lasts over increasing periods of time (years)
• Procedural long-term memory

5. Adaptability

• Closely linked with performance stability
• Ability to execute learned motor skills when subjected to new environmental and task constraints

6. Reduction In Attention Demand

• Ability to execute additional while maintaining control  of primary motor  actions
• Reduced amount of cognitive processes

Assessing Learning

Plotting Performance Curves

• Record performance outcomes over a period of practice time
• Depicted graphically
• Error, accuracy should decrease as time continues

Transference Tests

Test original motor skill in a new situation: testing adaptability.

New situation could involve aspects pertaining to:

• Individual constraints??? Body composition, limb length.
• Environmental constraints??? Weather.
• Task constraints??? Size and shape of the implement.

Retention Tests

• Record initial performance level on the first day of practice
• Practice to acquire skill
• Substantial period of no practice
• Performance level on test day

Fitts & Posner’s Three-Stage Model

1. Cognitive Stage

• High degree of cognitive activity
• High attentional demands for receiving instructions and feedback
• Large number of errors
• Inconsistency of movement performance
• Unable to identify cause of error
• Coach provides instructions and demonstrations to correct movement errors

2. Associative Stage

• Associate environmental cues with movement to achieve performance goal
• Attain fundamental mechanics of skill
• Improved performance & consistency
• Fewer errors
• Attentional demand decreases
• Ability to detect simple errors
• Coach creates opportunity for learner to associate movement patterns with  changing environment

3. Autonomous Stage

• Skill becomes automatic
• Little attention is required
• Consistent performance
• Identify own movement errors
• Can do another task at the same time
• Coach takes on motivational role to encourage performer to achieve excellence

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Deakin’s Content

General Motor Abilities Hypothesis:

Similar to idea of intelligence quotient (IQ) in academic domains

• High GMA = good at most motor activities (motor genius)
• Low GMA = poor at most motor activities (motor moron)

Stages Of Memory

Sensory Memory: Sorts through sensory information and determining what is important to pass onto STM. If sensory memory doesn’t pass information onto STM for further processing we won’t remember it.

Short Term Memory: Appropriate practice and repetition in STM will help transfer information to LTM

LTM: Problem for LTM is process of recall and recognition of information in LTM. LTM stores different types of memory and knowledge.

Forgetting