title: Psychophysiological support of increasing attentional reserve during the development of a motor skill.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between motor skill and attentional reserve. Participants practiced a reaching task with the dominant upper extremity, to which a distortion of the visual feedback was applied, while a control group performed the same task without distortion. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), elicited by auditory stimuli were recorded throughout practice. Performance, as measured by initial directional error, was initially worse relative to controls and improved over trials. Analyses of the ERPs revealed that exogenous components, N1 and P2, were undifferentiated between the groups and did not change with practice. Notably, amplitude of the novelty P3 component, an index of the involuntary orienting of attention, was initially attenuated relative to controls, but progressively increased in amplitude over trials in the learning group only. The results provide psychophysiological evidence that attentional reserve increases as a function of motor skill acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence, Veterans Health Administration, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Jeremy C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Craig G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence, Veterans Health Administration, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.affiliation: School of Kinesiology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Jones-Lush
authors.affiliation: Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence, Veterans Health Administration, Baltimore, MD, USA; Veterans Affairs Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Wittenberg
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: bhatfiel@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Bradley D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hatfield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; EEG; Event-related potential; Motor learning; Novelty-P3