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The use of TBS to investigate the involvement of SMAproper and preSMA in a motor-sequencing task

Kate, Luka Pauline ten (2018) The use of TBS to investigate the involvement of SMAproper and preSMA in a motor-sequencing task.

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Abstract:In the present study the use of Theta Burst stimulation (TBS) was evaluated and two design protocols by Verwey et al. (2002) and Ruitenberg et al. (2014) are combined to one experimental design to investigate the functionalities of the SMAproper and preSMA in one single experiment. A between-subjects design was used to compare the performance of participants on a discrete sequence production (DSP) task. TBS was applied to stimulate either the preSMA or SMAproper to inhibit their functions and study the effects on motor-sequencing performance. Based on the two previous studies by Verwey et al. (2002) and Ruitenberg et al. (2014), it was expected that stimulation of the preSMA would slow down motor chunk initiation and stimulation of the SMAproper would slow down overall reaction times (RTs). The findings of the previous studies could not be replicated in this study. This is perhaps because of the use of TBS instead of rTMS. It is concluded that the use of TBS was not sufficient to inhibit the activity of the preSMA and the SMAproper and therefore had no influence on RTs and chunk initiation. Intensive literature research was done to explain the absence of any effects. For example, muscle contraction before, during and after the stimulation and the learning effect that was maybe too strong were possible explanation. Therefore, a follow-up study with some adjustments regarding the experimental setup is suggested for future research.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/74965
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