The neural correlates of motor skill automaticity

Acquisition of a new skill is generally associated with a decrease in the need for effortful control over performance, leading to the development of automaticity. Automaticity by definition has been achieved when performance of a primary task is minimally affected by other ongoing tasks. The neural basis of automaticity was examined by testing subjects in a serial reaction time (SRT) task under both single-task and dual-task conditions. The diminishing cost of dual-task performance was used as an index for automaticity. Subjects performed the SRT task during two functional magnetic imaging sessions separated by 3 h of behavioral training over multiple days. Behavioral data showed that, by the end of testing, subjects had automated performance of the SRT task. Before behavioral training, performance of the SRT task concurrently with the secondary task elicited activation in a wide network of frontal and striatal regions, as well as parietal lobe. After extensive behavioral training, dual-task performance showed comparatively less activity in bilateral ventral premotor regions, right middle frontal gyrus, and right caudate body; activity in other prefrontal and striatal regions decreased equally for single-task and dual-task conditions. These data suggest that lateral and dorsolateral prefrontal regions, and their corresponding striatal targets, subserve the executive processes involved in novice dual-task performance. The results also showed that supplementary motor area and putamen/globus pallidus regions showed training-related decreases for sequence conditions but not for random conditions, confirming the role of these regions in the representation of learned motor sequences.