Examining neuroplasticity as a function of errors during motor learning

Abstract

Proficient motor learning is important for both athletes looking to improve their performance and patients learning daily living skills. Research has identified different methods for learning motor skills, focusing on two types: implicit and explicit learning. Implicit learning happens with little awareness, while explicit learning requires more conscious thought. Studies show that implicit learning is often more effective because it uses less mental effort and is more reliable under stress. This might be due to stronger neural connections in the brain formed during implicit learning. However, it is unclear whether implicit learning leads to more brain changes, known as neuroplasticity, than explicit learning. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to adapt and form new memory networks in response to experiences. This study aims to investigate differences in neuroplastic changes resulting from implicit versus explicit learning of a traditional Dutch shuffleboard game (Sjoelbak). We used baseline electroencephalography (EEG) to measure changes in brain activity before and after practice to assess neuroplasticity. We examined the effects of errorless and errorful learning protocols on task performance and neural connectivity. Both strategies improved accuracy from pretest to posttest, indicating effective skill acquisition. However, participants struggled to transfer skills to new contexts, as shown by decreased performance in the transfer test. Despite expectations of greater neuroplastic changes as a function of errorless learning, resting-state beta connectivity analyses showed no significant interactions. However, no significant differences were evident in the overall error rates between the groups during the learning phase, suggesting that implicit motor learning may not have occurred for the errorless learning condition. This suggests that neural adaptations are more complex than initially hypothesized.