title: The value of the follow-through derives from motor learning depending on future actions.
abstract: In ball sports, we are taught to follow through, despite the inability of events after contact or release to influence the outcome [1, 2]. Here we show that the specific motor memory active at any given moment critically depends on the movement that will be made in the near future. We demonstrate that associating a different follow-through movement with two motor skills that normally interfere [3-7] allows them to be learned simultaneously, suggesting that distinct future actions activate separate motor memories. This implies that when learning a skill, a variable follow-through would activate multiple motor memories across practice, whereas a consistent follow-through would activate a single motor memory, resulting in faster learning. We confirm this prediction and show that such follow-through effects influence adaptation over time periods associated with real-world skill learning. Overall, our results indicate that movements made in the immediate future influence the current active motor memory. This suggests that there is a critical time period both before [8] and after the current movement that determines motor memory activation and controls learning.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, University of Plymouth, Portland Square, Plymouth PL4 8AA UK. Electronic address: ian.howard@plymouth.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ian S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.affiliation: Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wolpert
authors.affiliation: Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK. Electronic address: dwf25@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Franklin
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors