Visual online control processes are acquired during observational practice Spencer J. Hayes a, ⁎, Digby Elliott a, b , Simon J. Bennett a a Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK b Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada abstract article info Article history: Received 27 September 2012 Received in revised form 12 April 2013 Accepted 14 April 2013 Available online xxxx PsycINFO codes: 2330 Motor Processes 2343 Learning & Memory 2323 Visual Perception Keywords: Observational practice Motor learning Motor control Online visual control processes This experiment examined whether visual online control processes are coded during observational practice. Participants physically practised an aiming sequence while yoked participants either observed (observational practice) or did nothing (control). Two target sizes were used to vary the importance of visual online control processes. Constant error and variable error indicated that participants acquired the timing constraints through physical practice and observational practice. Kinematic data confirmed that the physical practice and observational practice groups executed similar movement control. Physical practice did result in a per- formance advantage, but only under large target conditions. These findings indicate that visual online control processes can be effectively acquired through observational practice. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It is well accepted that individuals engaged in observational practice can learn the spatio-temporal goals (Vogt, 1995) and movement kine- matics (Bennett, Elliott, & Hayes, 2010) of an observed action to a similar level as those that physically practised the task. Furthermore, the said learning effects can be attenuated if a secondary motor task is performed whilst observing a model (Mattar & Gribble, 2005) or if repetitive trans- cranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is applied to primary motor cortex (Brown, Wilson, & Gribble, 2009). These findings indicate that motor learning from observing is associated with a highly specialized neural sys- tem, which links action-observation and motor-execution (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). Evidence from functional neuroimaging experiments in which participants acquired novel hand actions via imitation learning (Buccino et al., 2004; Vogt et al., 2007) and observational practice (Higuchi, Holle, Roberts, Eickhoff, & Vogt, 2012) is consistent with these suggestions. For instance, following observational practice or physical practice of novel guitar chord actions, Higuchi et al. (2012) reported that both groups of learners exhibited similar cortical activations in fronto-parietal mirror circuit (PMv, ventral premotor cortex; IPL, inferior parietal lobule), as well as dorsal pre-motor cortex (PMd) and superior parietal lobule (SPL). This high degree of functional correspondence indicates that the respective motor learning processes invoked during physical practice and observational practice led to similar neural repre- sentations for the control of motor-execution. The finding that parietal cortex is recruited during observational practice is interesting in the respect that this cortical region is known to be involved in the control of visually-guided movements (Clower et al., 1996; Desmurget et al., 1999; Grea et al., 2002; Pisella et al., 2000). Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) while participants made upper limb movements to targets located in the peripheral visual field, Desmurget et al. (1999) reported that successful hand trajectory modifications to unexpected shifts of target position were disrupted when TMS pulses were delivered to posterior partial cortex (PPC) just after movement onset. The implication is that PPC is involved in the execution and control of visually-guided movements, where it acts as a neural comparator for determining the relative locations of the hand and target (for additional evidence that PPC is crucial for fast on-line motor control see Pisella et al., 2000). Following this comparison pro- cess, information about the nature of any spatial discrepancy is sent to dorsal pre-motor and primary motor cortex to generate (new) motor commands to reduce limb error so that the hand hits the target. During physical practice, the trial-to-trial generation of new motor commands whilst performing visually-guided motor move- ments operates by comparing online visual information against af- ferent (i.e., proprioception) and efferent signals (e.g., Desmurget et al., 1999; Elliott, Helsen, & Chua, 2001; Wolpert, Ghahramani, & Flanagan, 2001). This process creates sensorimotor representations and forward models that underpin skilled behaviour. During observational practice, however, a sensory contribution to this representation can only be pro- vided from vision because motor afference (i.e., from the effector/limb) Acta Psychologica 143 (2013) 298–302 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Tom Reilly Building, Byrom Street, L3 3AF Liverpool, UK. Tel.: +44 151 904 6237; fax: +44 151 904 6284. E-mail address: s.hayes@ljmu.ac.uk (S.J. Hayes). 0001-6918/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.04.012 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Acta Psychologica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ locate/actpsy