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Two response precuing experiments were conducted to investigate effects of musical skill level on the ability to pre- and re-programme simple movements. Participants successfully used advance information to prepare forthcoming responses and showed response slowing when precue information was invalid rather than valid. This slowing was, however, only observed for partially invalid but not fully invalid precues. Musicians were generally faster than non-musicians, but no group differences in the efficiency of movement pre-programming or re-programming were observed. Interestingly, only musicians exhibited a significant foreperiod lateralized readiness potential (LRP) when response hand was pre-specified or full advance information was provided. These LRP findings suggest increased effector-specific motor preparation in musicians than non-musicians. However, here the levels of effector-specific preparation did not predict preparatory advantages observed in behaviour. In sum, combining the response precuing and ERP paradigms serves a valuable tool to examine influences of musical training on movement pre- or re-programming processes.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.01.014

Type

Journal article

Journal

Biol Psychol

Publication Date

03/2015

Volume

106

Pages

39 - 49

Keywords

CNV, LRP, Movement preparation, Musician, Re-programming, Adolescent, Adult, Contingent Negative Variation, Cues, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Female, Functional Laterality, Humans, Learning, Male, Movement, Music, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Young Adult