Learning two consecutive conflicting tasks influences the ability to learn from error

JACOBACCI FLORENCIA; VILLALTA JORGE I.; CAFFARO PEDRO A.; SHADMEHR REZA; ALBERT SCOTT T.; DELLA MAGGIORE VALERIA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 2nd FALAN Congress 2016; 2016

Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Neuroscience Societies

A previous study from our groupshows that when subjects learn two consecutive motor tasks they experiencedifferent anterograde effects depending on the time interval between them.Specifically, when they are separated by 1 min there is an interference effectof the first task on the learning rate of the second task. This effect tends torevert as the visuomotor tasks are separated in time, with a tendency towardsfacilitation of learning. To investigate whether this temporal pattern ofanterograde effects reflected differences in trial-by-trial retention or in theability to learn from error, a single-state space model was implemented to fitsingle subject?s behavioural data. We found that the ability to learn fromerror was lower only when the two tasks were separated by 1 min, but revertedthereafter and became higher as the time interval increased. These results showa pattern that resembles that of the anterograde effect identified in thebehavioural data. In contrast, trial-by-trial retention was similarly affectedfor different elapsed times between tasks. Our results indicate that it is thesensitivity to experienced errors and not the ability to retain informationfrom the previous trial what is differentially affected when learning oppositetasks.