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Optimal Training for Movement Acquisition and Transfer: Does âExternally-Focused' Visual Biofeedback Promote Implicit Motor Learning?
Copyright 2022 The Author(s). Context:
Visual biofeedback has been shown to facilitate injury-resistant movement acquisition in adolescent athletes. Visual biofeedback is typically thought to foster implicit learning, by stimulating athletes to focus attention externally (on movement outcome). However, biofeedback may also induce explicit learning, if the athlete uses the visual information to consciously guide movement execution (using an internal focus).
Objective:
To determine the degree to which athletes report statements indicative of implicit or explicit motor learning after engaging in a visual biofeedback intervention.
Design:
Prospective cohort.
Setting:
3D motion analysis laboratory.
Patients or Other Participants:
Twenty-five adolescent female soccer athletes (15.9±0.9 yrs, 164.9±5.67 cm, 58.9±10.3 kg).
Interventions:
Standard six-week neuromuscular training intervention (three 90-minute sessions/week), with added visual biofeedback sessions (two sessions/week). For the biofeedback training, participants performed squatting and jumping movements while interacting with a visual rectangular stimulus that mapped key parameters associated with injury risk. After the last biofeedback session in each week, participants answered open-ended questions to probe learning strategies.
Main Outcome Measures:
Responses to the open-ended questions were categorized as âexternally focusedâ (i.e., on movement outcome, suggestive of implicit learning), âinternally focusedâ (i.e., on movement itself; suggestive of explicit learning), âmixed focusâ, or âother.â
Results:
171 open-ended responses were 25 collected. Most of the responses that could be categorized (39.2%) were externally focused (41.8%) followed by mixed (38.8%), and internally focused (19.4%). The frequency of external focus statements increased from week 1 (18%) to week 6 (50%).
Conclusions:
While most statements were externally focused (suggesting implicit learning), the relatively large proportion of internal/mixed focus statements suggests many athletes also engaged in explicit motor learning, especially in early practice sessions. Therefore, biofeedback may impact motor learning through a mixture of implicit/explicit learning
NEURAL CORRELATES OF LOWER EXTREMITY INTERLIMB COORDINATION DURING A NOVEL MULTI-JOINT BILATERAL LEG PRESS
Alexis B. Slutsky-Ganesh1, Manish Anand1, Jed A. Diekfuss1, Dustin R. Grooms2, Gregory D. Myer1. 1Emory University, Atlanta, GA. 2Ohio University, Athens, OH.
BACKGROUND: Athletes with high injury risk landing mechanics rely on greater recruitment of cognition-based brain regions for knee motor control. However, prior research utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and 3D motion analysis to isolate neural activity of knee motor control has been limited to unilateral movements, and thus could not evaluated lower extremity motor coordination. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between bilateral knee motor control kinematics and brain activity using a novel, multi-joint fMRI leg press paradigm. METHODS: Seventeen adolescent female athletes (15.0 ± 1.4 years) completed a bilateral leg press during fMRI with concurrent 3D motion capture to quantify interlimb coordination via the correlation between peak-to-peak knee flexion cycle time between legs. Participants completed 4-30sec blocks of bilateral, ankle, knee, and hip flexion and extension movements against resistance, interspersed with 30-sec rest blocks while undergoing brain fMRI. During the movement blocks, participants moved to the beat of a metronome (1.2 Hz) while fully instrumented for biomechanical assessment using a single camera, MRI-compatible 3D motion analysis system. Standard preprocessing and statistical analyses for task-based neuroimaging were completed in FSL, with lower extremity coordination as a covariate of interest. A cluster wise multi-comparison correction was applied at z\u3e3.1 and p \u3c.05. RESULTS: Less lower extremity coordination during the bilateral leg press resulted in greater activation in the posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus (voxels=478, zmax=5.56, p\u3c.001), bilateral clusters in the lateral occipital cortices (right: voxels=157, zmax =5.29, p\u3c.021; left: voxels=141, zmax =6.84, p=.033), and the right hippocampus (voxels=138, zmax =4.13, p=.036). CONCLUSIONS: Less lower extremity coordination during a leg press maneuver resulted in greater activation of attention- and memory-related brain regions. Such increased activity may indicate elevated cognitive appraisal of motor control, limiting or interfering with optimal processes for coordination. Future research aiming to improve bimanual motor coordination should consider interventional approaches capable of promoting neural efficiency of cognitive and memory regions during physical activity (e.g., dual-task neuromuscular training)