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INTRODUCTION: Mirror neurons have been suggested as a potential neural mechanism of observational learning. This study aims to investigate the effect of self-modeling, skilled model, and learning model on mu rhythm suppression and golf putting acquisition and retention. METHODS: The study was conducted on 45 male volunteer students (aged 19.4±0.37 years) in three experimental groups, self-modeling, skilled, and learning models with six sessions of physical and observational training in three periods of pre-test, acquisition, and retention. In the pre-test, after the initial familiarity with the skill, participants performed 10 golf putting actions while scores were recorded. Then, electrical brain waves in C3, C4, and Cz regions were recorded during the observation of 10 golf putting actions by their group-related models. The acquisition period consisted of golf putting training during six sessions, each consisting of six blocks of 10 trials. Before each training block, participants observed golf putting related to their group 10 times in the form of a video. Acquisition and delayed retention tests were also performed by recording scores of 10 golf putting actions, as well as recording electrical brain waves while observing the skill performed by the related model. RESULTS: Mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the mu rhythm suppression in the pre-test was more in the self-modeling group compared to the skilled model and learning model groups, but this suppression was not significantly different in all three groups in the acquisition and retention tests. In putting task variables, all three groups that had no significant difference in the pre-test period made considerable progress in learning the desired skill from the pre-test to the acquisition test, and this progress was somewhat stable until the retention test. Also, both in the acquisition and retention periods, the self-modeling group showed better performance than the other two groups; however, no significant difference was observed between these groups. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the model-observer similarity is a crucial factor in modeling interventions and can affect the rate of mu rhythm suppression.

Studies on pain are generally conducted for two purposes: first, to study patients with pain who have physical changes due to nerve and muscle lesions, and second, to regain the appropriate kinematic post-pain pattern. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of pain on the coordination variability pattern and throw accuracy. Participants included 30 people with a mean age of 18-25 years who volunteered to participate in the study. Individuals were randomly divided into three groups of local pain, remote pain, and control group. Without pain, participants practiced and acquired skills in 10 blocks of 15 trials. In the retention and transition phase, which were associated with pain, in their respective groups, included 1 hour, 24- hour, and 1- week acquisition; they were re-tested twice in a 15-block trial, which was once with and without pain. The results revealed that pain did not affect the throwing accuracy (p = 0.469). Besides, in the phase of decreasing acceleration in throwing, movement variability pattern in the pain-related groups in the shoulder and elbow joints (p = 0.000), elbow and wrist (p = 0.000), were more than the painless groups. Based on the results, it can be said that the increase in variability in pain-related groups is due to the different strategies and patterns that individuals use to avoid pain. Also, despite the pain, the nervous system attempts to increase the variability find the least painful pattern of movement and reduces this variability over time and using a repetitive pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicit skills learning such as riding a bicycle and playing a musical instrument play a central role in daily life. Such skills are learned gradually and are retained throughout life. The learning of motor skill occurs with practice, but skill can also increase between sessions, a process termed "off-line learning". In this research, Participants were tested on an implicit version of the Alternating Serial Reaction Time Task and re-tested 6, 24 or 72 h later. ANOVA revealed significant off-line motor skill improvement participants responding faster at the beginning of Session 2 than at the end of Session 1. The elapsed time between the two sessions influenced the improvement of motor skill improvements as well. Thus, participants' response speed improved more after the 24-, 72hr than after the 6-hr. The subsequent paired-samples t-tests conducted separately for all delay groups revealed that the off-line improvement of motor skill was significant in all groups (p< .05), and in all groups the 6, 24, 72-hr delay led to off-line enhancement (p< .05).This demonstrates that implicitly acquired skills can increase between sessions and the process occurs over hours. These findings are consistent with theoretical accounts of procedural skill learning such as the procedural reinstatement theory as well as with previous studies of retention of other motor skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]