Implicit learning of a perceptual-motor skill after stroke.
OBJECTIVE
A motor skill can be learned implicitly, without awareness of what is being learned. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of adults who had unilateral stroke to learn implicitly a perceptual-motor task.


METHODS
Subjects were 47 people who were poststroke and 36 control subjects.


METHODS
Participants performed sequences of hand movements in response to target lights in 2 conditions: a patterned sequence and a random sequence. Participants were not given explicit knowledge of the presence of the 2 conditions. Those who had stroke performed with the upper-extremity ipsilateral to the lesion.


RESULTS
Subjects who had stroke performed more slowly than control subjects. For both groups, times decreased with practice of the patterned sequence, increased with introduction of the random sequence, and decreased again with reintroduction of the patterned sequence. Group differences persisted in a retention test given the next day of the patterned sequence, and both groups showed decreased times over the course of the retention test.


CONCLUSIONS
People with stroke are able to learn a perceptual-motor task even without explicit instructions regarding the patterned sequence embedded in the task.
Pohl
P S
PS
Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. ppohl@hp.ufl.edu
McDowd
J M
JM
Filion
D L
DL
Richards
L G
LG
Stiers
W
W
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*