Practice really does make perfect 09.01.

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Practice really does make perfect

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Credit: Rice University

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Plymouth have Medical Xpress on facebook
shown that follow-through - such as when swinging a golf club or tennis racket - can
help us to learn two different skills at once, or to learn a single skill faster. The research
provides new insight into the way tasks are learned, and could have implications for
rehabilitation, such as re-learning motor skills following a stroke.

The researchers found that the particular motor memory which is active and modifiable
in the brain at any given time depends on both lead-in and follow-through movement,
and that skills which may otherwise interfere can be learned at the same time if their
follow-through motions are unique. The research is published today (8 January) in the
journal Current Biology.

While follow-through in sports such as tennis or golf cannot affect the movement of the
ball after it has been hit, it does serve two important purposes: it both helps maximise
velocity or force at the point of impact, and helps prevent injuries by allowing a gradual
slowdown of a movement.

Now, researchers have found a third important role for follow-through: it allows distinct
motor memories to be learned. In other words, by practising the same action with
different follow-throughs, different motor memories can be learned for a single
movement.

If a new task, whether that is serving a tennis ball or learning a passage on a musical
instrument, is repeated enough times, a motor memory of that task is developed. The
brain is able to store, protect and reactivate this memory, quickly instructing the
muscles to perform the task so that it can be performed seemingly without thinking.

The problem with learning similar but distinct tasks is that they can 'interfere' with each
other in the brain. For example, tennis and racquetball are both racket sports.
However, the strokes for the two sports are slightly different, as topspin is great for a
tennis player, but not for a racquetball player. Despite this, in theory it should be
possible to learn both sports independently. However, many people find it difficult to
perform at a high level in both sports, due to interference between the two strokes.

In order to determine whether we learn a separate motor memory for each task, or a
single motor memory for both, the researchers examined either the presence or
absence of interference by having participants learn a 'reaching' task in the presence
of two opposite force-fields.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-01-practice-really-does-make-perfect.html 1/3
Practice really does make perfect 09.01.2015

Participants grasped the handle of a robotic interface and made a reaching movement
through an opposing force-field to a central target, followed immediately by a second
unopposed follow-through movement to one of two possible final targets. The direction
of the force-field was changed, representing different tasks, and the researchers were
able to examine whether the tasks are learned separately, in which case there would be
no interference, or whether we learn the mean of the two opposing force-fields, in which
case there would be complete interference.

The researchers found that the specific motor memory which is active at any given
moment depends on the movement that will be made in the near future. When a follow-
through movement was made that anticipated the force-field direction, there was a
substantial reduction in interference. This suggests that different follow-throughs may
activate distinct motor memories, allowing us to learn two different skills without them
interfering, even when the rest of the movement is identical. However, while practising a
variable follow-through can activate multiple motor memories, practising a consistent
follow-through allowed for tasks to be learned much faster.

"There is always noise in our movements, which arrives in the sensory information we
receive, the planning we undertake, and the output of our motor system," said Dr David
Franklin of Cambridge's Department of Engineering, a senior author on the research.
"Because of this, every movement we make is slightly different from the last one even if
we try really hard to make it exactly the same - there will always be variability within our
movements and therefore within our follow-through as well."

When practicing a new skill such as a tennis stroke, we may think that we do not need
to care as much about controlling the variability after we hit the ball as it can't actually
affect the movement of the ball itself. "However this research suggests that this
variability has another very important point - that it reduces the speed of learning of the
skill that is being practiced," said Franklin.

The research may also have implications for rehabilitation, such as re-learning skills
after a stroke. When trying to re-learn skills after a stroke, many patients actually
exhibit a great deal of variability in their movements. "Since we have shown that
learning occurs faster with consistent movements, it may therefore be important to
consider methods to reduce this variability in order to improve the speed of
rehabilitation," said Dr Ian Howard of the University of Plymouth, the paper's lead
author.

Explore further: Memories of errors foster faster learning

More information: The paper, "The value of follow-through derives from motor
learning depending on future actions," is publishing in Current Biology - February 02,
2015 issue.

Journal reference: Current Biology

Provided by University of Cambridge 5 /5 (2 votes)

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