TY - JOUR
T1 - (De)Stabilization of Required and Spontaneous Postural Dynamics With Learning
AU - Faugloire, Elise
AU - Bardy, Benoît G.
AU - Stoffregen, Thomas A.
PY - 2009/2
Y1 - 2009/2
N2 - The present research examined how learning a new ankle-hip coordination influenced the preexisting postural repertoire. Standing participants learned a new ankle-hip coordination mode (relative phase of 90°). Before and after practice, postural patterns were evaluated in two different tasks. In the required task, specific ankle-hip patterns were requested (12 relative phases in multiples of 30°). In the spontaneous task, participants performed a tracking task in which no instructions about ankle-hip coordination were given. Learning induced changes in both required and spontaneous coordination dynamics. When ankle-hip patterns were required, learning led to improvement and homogenization in performance over the entire postural repertoire. When ankle-hip patterns emerged spontaneously, in-phase and antiphase preexisting patterns destabilized and changed toward the learned pattern of 90°. These findings demonstrate that learning a new coordination pattern can induce modifications of patterns that have not been practiced. The results also suggest that the consequences of learning do not generalize across different types of tasks, even when similar coordination modes are involved. We discuss implications of these findings for the generality of learning mechanisms.
AB - The present research examined how learning a new ankle-hip coordination influenced the preexisting postural repertoire. Standing participants learned a new ankle-hip coordination mode (relative phase of 90°). Before and after practice, postural patterns were evaluated in two different tasks. In the required task, specific ankle-hip patterns were requested (12 relative phases in multiples of 30°). In the spontaneous task, participants performed a tracking task in which no instructions about ankle-hip coordination were given. Learning induced changes in both required and spontaneous coordination dynamics. When ankle-hip patterns were required, learning led to improvement and homogenization in performance over the entire postural repertoire. When ankle-hip patterns emerged spontaneously, in-phase and antiphase preexisting patterns destabilized and changed toward the learned pattern of 90°. These findings demonstrate that learning a new coordination pattern can induce modifications of patterns that have not been practiced. The results also suggest that the consequences of learning do not generalize across different types of tasks, even when similar coordination modes are involved. We discuss implications of these findings for the generality of learning mechanisms.
KW - ankle-hip relative phase
KW - coordination dynamics
KW - intention
KW - motor learning
KW - standing posture
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U2 - 10.1037/0096-1523.35.1.170
DO - 10.1037/0096-1523.35.1.170
M3 - Article
C2 - 19170480
AN - SCOPUS:60349126036
SN - 0096-1523
VL - 35
SP - 170
EP - 187
JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
IS - 1
ER -