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What is the role of the corpus callosum in intermanual transfer of motor skills? A study of three cases with callosal pathology.

Intermanual transfer for a skilled motor task was studied in two patients with total callosal agenesis, and one with an acquired partial callosal lesion and clinical evidence for disturbed transfer of motor signals. Patients had to draw meaningless figures with one upper extremity (original learning, OL) and to reproduce their mirror-reversals thereafter with the other side (transfer learning, TL). Both directions of intermanual transfer were tested in two conditions, that is, between either proximal or distal muscle groups. Transfer was evaluated by comparing OL and TL performance at the same effector. The main variable of interest was movement time during the first eight trials of OL and TL. All three patients displayed a significant benefit for transfer from the dominant to the non-dominant hand but not vice versa during proximal motor activity. When compared with the performance of healthy subjects tested in almost identical conditions in a previously reported study, the proximal transfer behavior was found to be similar for all patients and the normal group. Although patients exhibited no significant benefit for distal transfer, their non-dominant-to-dominant distal transfer was above the normal range. The similar transfer pattern of the patients and healthy subjects when using proximal musculature suggests that proximal transfer may be subserved by identical extracallosal pathways, most probably by the ipsilaterally descending motor systems. Since non-dominant-to-dominant distal transfer was found to be disadvantageous in healthy subjects, the patients' relative superiority in this condition may reflect missing callosal influences of an inhibitory nature.

Adult↗

Transfer of motor performance in an obstacle avoidance task to different walking conditions.

The aim of this study was to examine whether subjects who have learned a skilled locomotor task can transfer the acquired performance to conditions involving either a change in the external coordinates or in the sensory input from one leg. Subjects were trained to step over an obstacle with minimal foot clearance without visual information about either the obstacle or their legs during treadmill walking. Leg muscle activity and joint kinematics were recorded and analyzed. Acoustic signals provided feedback about foot clearance over the obstacle. After successful training, the transfer of learning between level and downhill walking and to walking with additional weight attached to the leg was examined. It was found that once subjects learned to step over the obstacle at an optimal foot clearance, they could transfer their performance within the first step over the obstacle in the new walking conditions. Closer examination of the transfer between level and downhill walking revealed no consistent kinematic strategy across subjects. To transfer the learned performance to walking with additional weight, subjects consistently and automatically increased biceps femoris muscle activation. The results are discussed in the context of emerging concepts in the neural control of walking and motor learning.

Adolescent↗

Integration tutorials and seminars: a creative learning approach for occupational therapy curricula.

This paper, the first of two companion papers, describes a creative learning approach. Integration Tutorials and Seminars were developed to address concerns of regional fieldwork-education coordinators and preceptors about the ability of third-year student occupational therapists to integrate and apply academic and theoretical knowledge during fieldwork. This ability can be gained through experiential learning in the academic setting and is essential for the effective transfer of academic learning into the students' fieldwork-education experiences (Dale, 1994; Fidler, 1996; McCaugherty, 1991; Neistadt, 1996). The Modified Learning Model of Svinicki and Dixon (1987) was used as a template for an academic course fostering experiential learning. An important secondary goal was to nurture student self-directedness in learning using the philosophy of the Staged Self-Directed Learning Model (Grow, 1991). Case studies were used as a vehicle for engaging and challenging the students. The philosophy, guidelines and process of the Integration Tutorials and Seminars are presented and have the potential to be adapted for occupational therapy curricula around the globe.

Curriculum↗

ERP indicators of learning in adults.

This study investigated learning-related changes in the brain activity of young adults. A group of 29 undergraduate students (18-24 years) participated in a learning study that included a pretest, a training session, and a posttest. Each trial involved presentation of a complex visual stimulus and its spoken "name." Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to matching and mismatching names. In the pretest, the participants guessed whether the names were matching the figures. During training they learned the names of a set of simple elements making up the complex figures and were required to master a simple rule for combining the visual and auditory stimuli. The posttest included presentation of the combinations learned during training as well as novel pairings of the same elements. Following training the number of correct responses for learned items doubled and the amplitudes of the auditory ERPs to learned and rule transfer stimuli were more positive than brain waves to the not learned or novel items over most of the analysis window. The ERPs further differentiated between a familiarity response (late positive shift) and learning-specific changes (N2-P3 range). Overall, the findings suggest that ERPs can be a useful tool for learning assessment and offer new insights in the study of individual differences associated with the learning process.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Task specificity in nonspecific transfer and in extradimensional stimulus generalization in pigeons.

The theory of general attention predicts that true discrimination (TD) training will produce greater positive non- (stimulus-) specific transfer and sharper extradimensional stimulus generalization gradients than pseudodiscrimination (PD) training, because TD training establishes a set to discriminate (general attentiveness). Previous demonstrations have employed go-no-go (GN) discrimination training. In order to determine whether discrimination training per se is sufficient to produce the effects described, TD and PD groups of pigeons were trained in a successive-conditional (SC) discrimination. In Experiment 1, eight groups received TD or PD training between two line orientations in either an SC or a GN discrimination prior to transfer to either a true SC or a true GN discrimination between two colors. Discriminative performance in transfer was facilitated only when the original and transfer discriminations were of the same type. Experiment 2 replicated four of the conditions of Experiment 1 with procedural changes to make the transfer discrimination identical to that employed in previous "general attention experiments," with the same results. It is concluded that positive nonspecific transfer is primarily mediated by the transfer of task-specific learning rather than by the transfer of attentiveness. In Experiment 3, four groups were trained as in Stage 1 of Experiments 1 and 2, then given single-stimulus (SS) training with a chromatic stimulus, followed by a wavelength stimulus generalization test. Only TD-GN discrimination training produced sharp gradients, an effect leading to the conclusion that go-no-go discrimination training and stimulus generalization are closely related by task requirements rather than by attention. It is concluded that task-appropriate response tendencies probably mediate the effects observed.

Animals↗

Facilitation of discrimination transfers under amphetamine: the relative control by S+ and S- and general transfer effects.

Rats were trained in a Y-maze on a two-choice simultaneous black-white discrimination with either black or white as S+. Animals were then transferred to one of three discrimination tasks. In task 1 (New S-), a new stimulus, either vertical or horizontal stripes, was substituted for the original S-. In task 2 (New S+), a new stimulus, either vertical or horizontal stripes as in task 1, was substituted for the original S+. In task 3 (New S+/S-) animals were trained on horizontal-vertical discrimination. The pre-trial administration of 1 mg/kg d-amphetamine facilitated the acquisition of the original black-white discrimination with both black as S+ and white as S+. Likewise, the drug improved performance in all three transfer conditions. However, the course of learning in the three transfer tasks was different in the placebo- and amphetamine-treated animals. Amphetamine-treated animals were disrupted more by a change in S+ than by a change in S-, whereas the opposite pattern was evident in the placebo controls. When both discriminative stimuli were changed, placebo animals exhibited pronounced decrement in performance, whereas amphetamine animals exhibited excellent learning. The implications of these findings for the effects of amphetamine on discrimination learning are discussed.

Animals↗

The effect of change in stimuli on the transfer of dimensional pretraining to the discrimination learning of kindergarten children.

Kindergarten children were given verbal pretaining prior to a simultaneous discrimination learning task under 1 or 2 stimulus conditions. For half the children, the stimuli were changed from the pretaining task to the criterion task; for the other half, the stimuli were identical in the 2 tasks. During pretaining, the children learned to label the values of the dimension that would be either relevant, constant, or irrelevant in discrimination learning. When the stimuli were identical in 2 tasks, pretaining produced significant facilitation and interference effects in discrimination performance. The pretaining effects in the changed-stimulus condition were greatly attenuated and nonsignificant. The relation of these results to earlier findings and to studies of dimensional attention in general is discussed.

Child↗

The role of community nurses for people with learning disabilities: working with people who challenge.

The locus of care for people with learning disabilities has transferred from institutional to community-based services. Increasingly people who have learning disabilities and additional challenging behaviours live in community settings. Spearheading the care for these people are community nurses for people with learning disabilities. This study aimed to explicate the role of these nurses in their day-to-day work with people who challenge. Using grounded theory methodology, 22 nurses were selected by theoretical sampling and interviewed. An analytical story and theoretical framework that emerged from the grounded data is presented. It is suggested that this framework has utility for practice.

Community Health Services↗

Presenting clinical pharmacology and therapeutics: evaluation of a problem based approach for choosing drug treatments.

Between 1983 and 1989 three studies were conducted to determine whether the ability of senior medical students to choose drug treatments rationally had improved. This period spanned the implementation of a course in pharmacotherapeutics which trained students to use a systematic problem-based approach to choosing and prescribing drugs. The results show that in the short-term students remembered how to choose drugs rationally for cases known to them (retention effect), but had difficulties in transferring what had been learned to similar but different problems (transfer effect). In the medium-term a retention effect was shown for all three aspects of choice (drug, dosage and duration), and a transfer effect for choosing a dosage and duration when solving almost all types of patient problems used in the study. Transfer of the ability to choose a drug was less easily demonstrable. Compared with control students rational choices of trained students increased significantly for all aspects of drug choice, and almost all patient problems used in the study, whether or not they had been discussed. Possible causes for not finding a full transfer effect are: the intervention (course) may have been too short; there was sufficient knowledge about drugs but a lack of understanding of basic pharmacological concepts; or there was no reinforcement of the problem-based approach during clinical clerkships.

Clinical Clerkship↗

Errorless transfer of a discrimination across two continua.

A procedure developed earlier (Terrace, 1963) successfully trained a red-green discrimination without the occurrence of any errors in 12 out of 12 cases. Errorless transfer from the red-green discrimination to a discrimination between a vertical and a horizontal line was accomplished by first superimposing the vertical and the horizontal lines on the red and green backgrounds, respectively, and then fading out the red and the green backgrounds. Superimposition of the two sets of stimuli without fading, or an abrupt transfer from the first to the second set of stimuli, resulted in the occurrence of errors during transfer. Superimposition, however, did result in some "incidental learning". Performance following acquisition of the vertical-horizontal discrimination with errors differed from performance following acquisition without errors. If the vertical-horizontal discrimination was learned with errors, the latency of the response to S+ was permanently shortened and errors occurred during subsequent testing on the red-green discrimination even though the red-green discrimination was originally acquired without errors. If the vertical-horizontal discrimination was learned without errors, the latency of the response to S+ was unaffected and no errors occurred during subsequent testing on the red-green discrimination.

Discrimination Learning↗

[Effect of destruction of the hippocampus and septum on learning in the rat in "negative transfer" situations].

Intact rats and rats with lesions of the hippocampus and septum were trained to repeated switching-over of the habit of choosing the reinforced side of the maze as well as to alternation of reinforced side choice. Repeated switchings-over of the habit impedes the subsequent elaboration of the choice alternation ("negative transfer"). In operated animals, the interferating effect of the previous experience is more expressed. The observed deficit of training is due to disturbance in the apparatus limiting the process of search and retrieval of adequate information from the memory.

Animals↗