To clarify the vertical transfer of the CE, that is from the upper to lower limb, for the motor skills with the force matching task.To clarify the vertical transfer of the CE, that is from the upper to lower limb, for the motor skills with the force matching task.
14 young healthy adults participated in this study. The motor skill was performed with the force matching task in the upper and lower limb was the pinch and the ankle plantar flexion, respectively. The force accuracy was assessed by the absolute errors (AEs) between the target force and the actual force with the dominant side of the upper and lower limbs before and after training. Training used four target forces at 20, 40, 60, and 80 % of the maximum isometric strength with the pinch force matching task in undominant side of the upper limb and participants performed until the AEs in all target forces was within ± 5 % of the maximum strength. A repeated-measure two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for AEs to compare force levels (20, 40, 60, and 80 %) and the CE effect (pre vs. post) in each force matching task. Sphericity assumptions were evaluated using Mauchly's test, and if violations were detected, the Greenhouse-Geisser correction was applied for adjustment. A Bonferroni post-hoc analysis was conducted using the pairwise comparisons method. A significance level was set at p .05 for all variables.
The average number of trainings was 8.8 ± 3.8. There was no interaction between force level × CE effect (p = .950) in the pinch task and there was a main effect of force level (p = .009) and CE effect (p = .012). Post-hoc tests showed that force errors in the pinch task were decreased significantly in the dominant (untrained) side at all force levels except at 80 % (all p .05). In the force matching task with the ankle plantar flexion, there was no interaction between force level × CE effect (p = .842) and there was no main effect of the CE effect (p = .201). There was the main effect of the force level in the ankle plantar flexion (p = .041).
This study showed the CE for the motor skill between bilateral limbs and there was no effect of the CE on the motor skill in the vertical direction form upper to lower limbs.
The CE may improve the motor skill of paralyzed limbs in patients with stroke and fixed limbs with braces in patients with fractures and ligamentous injuries and the further study is required to clarify the vertical motor skill transfer of CE.
motor learning
muscle strength
