Sherman NE, Elion O, Kozol Z, Einat M, Frenkel-Toledo S. Ipsilateral transfer of motor skill from lower to upper limb in healthy adults: A randomized controlled trial.
PLoS One 2024;
19:e0303459. [PMID:
38768164 PMCID:
PMC11104604 DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0303459]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Whereas motor skills of the untrained upper limb (UL) can improve following practice with the other UL, it has yet to be determined if an UL motor skill can improve following practice of that skill with the lower limb (LL).
METHODS
Forty-five healthy subjects randomly participated in a 10-minute single-session intervention of (1) practicing 50 reaching movement (RM) sequences with the non-dominant left LL toward light switches (LL group); or (2) observing the identical 50 light switches sequences (Switches Observation (SO) group); or (3) observing nature films (Nature Observation (NO) group). RM sequence performance with the left UL toward the light switches was tested before and immediately after the intervention and retested after 24 h.
RESULTS
Reaching response time improved in the LL group more than in the SO and NO groups in the posttest (pBonferroni = 0.038 and pBonferroni < 0.001, respectively), and improved in the LL group more than in the NO group in the retest (pBonferroni = 0.004). Percentage of fails did not differ between groups across the timepoints.
CONCLUSIONS
It appears that the actual practice of the RM sequence skill with the UL together with the cognitive element embedded in the observation of the RM sequences contributes to ipsilateral transfer from LL to UL.
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