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Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning

BACKGROUND: The Error-related negativity (ERN) is a component of the event-related brain potentials elicited by error commission. The ERN is thought to reflect cognitive control processes aiming to improve performance. As previous studies showed a modulation of the ERN amplitude throughout the execu...

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Autores principales: Beaulieu, Christelle, Bourassa, Marie-Ève, Brisson, Benoit, Jolicoeur, Pierre, De Beaumont, Louis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4162918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25164514
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-15-102
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author Beaulieu, Christelle
Bourassa, Marie-Ève
Brisson, Benoit
Jolicoeur, Pierre
De Beaumont, Louis
author_facet Beaulieu, Christelle
Bourassa, Marie-Ève
Brisson, Benoit
Jolicoeur, Pierre
De Beaumont, Louis
author_sort Beaulieu, Christelle
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The Error-related negativity (ERN) is a component of the event-related brain potentials elicited by error commission. The ERN is thought to reflect cognitive control processes aiming to improve performance. As previous studies showed a modulation of the ERN amplitude throughout the execution of a learning task, this study aims to follow the ERN amplitude changes from early to late learning blocks in relation with concomitant motor sequence learning using a serial reaction time (SRT) task. Twenty-two healthy participants completed a SRT task during which continuous EEG activity was recorded. The SRT task consists of series of stimulus-response pairs and involves motor learning of a repeating sequence. Learning was computed as the difference in mean response time between the last sequence block and the last random blocks that immediately follows it (sequence-specific learning). Event-related potentials were analysed to measure ERN amplitude elicited by error commission. RESULTS: Mean ERN amplitude difference between the first four learning blocks and the last four learning blocks of the SRT task correlated significantly with motor sequence learning as well as with overall response time improvement, such that those participants whose ERN amplitude most increased through learning blocks were also those who exhibited most SRT task improvements. In contrast, neither sequence-specific learning nor overall response time improvement across learning blocks were found to be related to averaged ERN amplitude from all learning blocks. CONCLUSION: Findings from the present study suggest that the ERN amplitude changes from early to late learning blocks occurring over the course of the SRT task, as opposed to the averaged ERN amplitude from all learning blocks, is more closely associated with learning of a motor sequence. These findings propose an improved electrophysiological marker to index change in cognitive control efficiency during motor sequence learning.
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spelling pubmed-41629182014-09-14 Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning Beaulieu, Christelle Bourassa, Marie-Ève Brisson, Benoit Jolicoeur, Pierre De Beaumont, Louis BMC Neurosci Research Article BACKGROUND: The Error-related negativity (ERN) is a component of the event-related brain potentials elicited by error commission. The ERN is thought to reflect cognitive control processes aiming to improve performance. As previous studies showed a modulation of the ERN amplitude throughout the execution of a learning task, this study aims to follow the ERN amplitude changes from early to late learning blocks in relation with concomitant motor sequence learning using a serial reaction time (SRT) task. Twenty-two healthy participants completed a SRT task during which continuous EEG activity was recorded. The SRT task consists of series of stimulus-response pairs and involves motor learning of a repeating sequence. Learning was computed as the difference in mean response time between the last sequence block and the last random blocks that immediately follows it (sequence-specific learning). Event-related potentials were analysed to measure ERN amplitude elicited by error commission. RESULTS: Mean ERN amplitude difference between the first four learning blocks and the last four learning blocks of the SRT task correlated significantly with motor sequence learning as well as with overall response time improvement, such that those participants whose ERN amplitude most increased through learning blocks were also those who exhibited most SRT task improvements. In contrast, neither sequence-specific learning nor overall response time improvement across learning blocks were found to be related to averaged ERN amplitude from all learning blocks. CONCLUSION: Findings from the present study suggest that the ERN amplitude changes from early to late learning blocks occurring over the course of the SRT task, as opposed to the averaged ERN amplitude from all learning blocks, is more closely associated with learning of a motor sequence. These findings propose an improved electrophysiological marker to index change in cognitive control efficiency during motor sequence learning. BioMed Central 2014-08-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4162918/ /pubmed/25164514 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-15-102 Text en © Beaulieu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Beaulieu, Christelle
Bourassa, Marie-Ève
Brisson, Benoit
Jolicoeur, Pierre
De Beaumont, Louis
Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title_full Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title_fullStr Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title_full_unstemmed Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title_short Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
title_sort electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4162918/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25164514
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-15-102
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