Effects of Limb-Specific Fatigue on Motor Learning during an Upper Extremity Proprioceptive Task

Objective: To investigate the impact of limb-specific fatigue on acquisition and retention of an upper extremity proprioceptive task. Methods: Twenty-two right-handed participants were randomly and equally assigned to either fatigued or non-fatigued protocols. Acquisition phase for the upper extremity task consisted of 5 blocks each with 12 trials. After 48 hours, all participants performed 1 block retention test (12 trials) with the left arm followed by 1 block transfer test (12 trials) with the right arm. Performance for each block was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Performance differences between groups for acquisition was analyzed using a 2 x 5 (group x block) ANOVA with repeated measures on the blocks. The performance on retention-transfer was analyzed by separate ANOVAs. Statistical significance set at p<0.05.