Learning new gait patterns is enhanced by specificity of training rather than progression of task difficulty |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;2. Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;3. Michigan Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;4. School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;5. Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;6. Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance & Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China;2. Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province 321004, China;3. Medical Imaging Department, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China;4. China Resources WISCO General Hospital, China;1. University of South Carolina, Department of Psychology, Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Columbia, SC, USA;2. University of South Carolina, Department of Psychology, Columbia, SC, USA;1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400010, China;2. Central Laboratory, Xinqiao Hospital, The Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, 400037, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burns and Combined Injury, Department of Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, The Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, China |
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| Abstract: | The use of motor learning strategies may enhance rehabilitation outcomes of individuals with neurological injuries (e.g., stroke or cerebral palsy). A common strategy to facilitate learning of challenging tasks is to use sequential progression – i.e., initially reduce task difficulty and slowly increase task difficulty until the desired difficulty level is reached. However, the evidence related to the use of such sequential progressions to improve learning is mixed for functional skill learning tasks, especially considering situations where practice duration is limited. Here, we studied the benefits of sequential progression using a functional motor learning task that has been previously used in gait rehabilitation. Three groups of participants (N = 43) learned a novel motor task during treadmill walking using different learning strategies. Participants in the specific group (n = 21) practiced only the criterion task (i.e., matching a target template that was scaled-up by 30%) throughout the training. Participants in the sequential group (n = 11) gradually progressed to the criterion task (from 3% to 30% in increments of 3%), whereas participants in the random group (n = 11) started at 3% and progressed in random increments (involving both increases and decreases in task difficulty) to the criterion task. At the end of training, kinematic tracking performance on the criterion task was evaluated in all participants both with and without visual feedback. Results indicated that the tracking error was significantly lower in the specific group, and no differences were observed between the sequential and the random progression groups. The findings indicate that the amount of practice in the criterion task is more critical than the difficulty and variations of task practice when learning new gait patterns during treadmill walking. |
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| Keywords: | Locomotion Practice structure Variable Constant Gradual Variability |
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