Scheduled for Research Consortium Poster Session: Thematic Motor Behavior and Special Populations Posters, Friday, March 16, 2007, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Interlimb Transfer of Motor Skill Learning: Independent of Hand Preference

Demetra Panayiotou, Attila Kovacs and Qin Lai, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

Recent research demonstrated that different effector (muscle) systems shared a common task-specific dynamics (Kelso & Zanone, 2002) or a generalized motor program (Lai, Shea, Bruechert, & Little, 2002). In a practical view, interlimb transfer of motor skills is often observed in various sports, especially soccer. The primary purpose of the present experiment was to determine whether hand preference affected interlimb motor skill transfer. Secondly, we wanted to test whether practice leaded to a reduction of the surface electromyography (EMG). Twenty participants were randomly assigned into one of the two groups including practice with dominant hand and transfer test with non-dominant hand or reverse. In the experiment, the participants were asked to sit at a table to quickly squeeze a hand dynamometer in order to reproduce a force curve with 200 N as its peak and 140 ms as its period. The acquisition session consisted of six blocks of 10 trials following by an immediate transfer test. A delayed retention and transfer test was conducted 48 hrs after the practice session. The force production and the surface EMG on the brachioradialis were collected by a Biopac system. The ANOVA on acquisition indicated no group effect on the root mean squared (RMS) error of force production, F(1, 18) = 1.21, p>.05. But the analysis revealed that participants reliably improved their force production performance with practice, F(5, 100) = 44.4, p<.01. The further analysis on transfer tests demonstrated there was no difference between the last block of acquisition and the test for immediate transfer. That is, learning a force production curve using dominant hand can successfully transferred to the non-dominant hand and vice versa. The present results suggested interlimb transfer of a simple force production task was independent of hand preference. In addition, the analysis failed to detect any difference on practice or hand preference in terms of the total EMG. The result of the total EMG is not consistent with the previous hypothesis, in which practice results in a reduction of the EMG activities.
Keyword(s): motor skills, research

Back to the 2007 AAHPERD National Convention and Exposition (March 13 -- 17, 2007)