Temporal and kinematic consistency predict sequence awareness.
Many human motor skills can be represented as a hierarchical series of movement patterns. Awareness of underlying patterns can improve performance and decrease cognitive load. Subjects (n = 30) tapped a finger sequence with changing stimulus-to-response mapping and a common movement sequence. Thirteen subjects (43 %) became aware that they were tapping a familiar movement sequence during the experiment. Subjects who became aware of the underlying motor pattern tapped with greater kinematic and temporal consistency from task onset, but consistency was not sufficient for awareness. We found no effect of age, musical experience, tapping evenness, or inter-key-interval on awareness of the pattern in the motor response. We propose that temporal or kinematic consistency reinforces a pattern representation, but cognitive engagement with the contents of the sequence is necessary to bring the pattern to conscious awareness. These findings predict benefit for movement strategies that limit temporal and kinematic variability during motor learning.
Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Molly J
0000-0002-0309-8504
MJ
Jaynes
Department of Neurology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.|Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Marc H
MH
Schieber
Department of Neurology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA. jonathan_mink@urmc.rochester.edu.|Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA. jonathan_mink@urmc.rochester.edu.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA. jonathan_mink@urmc.rochester.edu.
Jonathan W
JW
Mink
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001364:Awareness; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Attention; Awareness; Finger tapping; Sequence learning; Variability