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Motor timing learned without motor training

Abstract

Improvements due to perceptual training are often specific to the trained task and do not generalize to similar perceptual tasks1. Surprisingly, given this history of highly constrained, context-specific perceptual learning, we found that training on a perceptual task showed significant transfer to a motor task. This result provides evidence for a common neural architecture underlying analysis of sensory input and control of motor output, and suggests a potential role for perception in motor development and rehabilitation.

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Figure 1: Change in motor performance as a function of perceptual training condition.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants T32-MH19942 and R29- MH54770, and NSF research grant SBR-9873477.

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Correspondence to Daniel V. Meegan.

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Meegan, D., Aslin, R. & Jacobs, R. Motor timing learned without motor training. Nat Neurosci 3, 860–862 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/78757

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