Sensorimotor Learning in a Computerized Athletic Training Battery

ABSTRACT

Sensorimotor abilities are crucial for performance in athletic, military, and other occupational activities, and there is great interest in understanding learning in these skills. Here, behavioral performance was measured over three days as twenty-seven participants practiced multiple sessions on the Nike SPARQ Sensory Station (Nike, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon), a computerized visual and motor assessment battery. Wrist-worn actigraphy was recorded to monitor sleep–wake cycles. Significant learning was observed in tasks with high visuomotor control demands but not in tasks of visual sensitivity. Learning was primarily linear, with up to 60% improvement, but did not relate to sleep quality in this normal-sleeping population. These results demonstrate differences in the rate and capacity for learning across perceptual and motor domains, indicating potential targets for sensorimotor training interventions.

Keywords:

• motor control
• perception and action
• sensorimotor learning
• sleep
• vision

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Lauren Hughes, Tarik Bel-Bahar, Annie Apple, Floyd Wilks Jr., Clara Colombatto, Yvonne Lu, Gabriela Asturas, and Eliza Gentzler for assistance with data collection; to the Duke Sleep Clinic for their guidance in actigraphy collection and analysis; and to the Duke Visual Cognition Lab for their aid in experiment setup. During the execution of this research project, Stephen R. Mitroff served on an advisory board for Nike Inc., the producer of the Sensory Station.

Funding

This research was funded by grant support to L. Gregory Appelbaum and Stephen R. Mitroff through DARPA grant # D12AP00025-002.