AUTHOR=Boisgontier Matthieu P. , Serbruyns Leen , Swinnen Stephan P. TITLE=Physical Activity Predicts Performance in an Unpracticed Bimanual Coordination Task JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00249 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00249 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

Practice of a given physical activity is known to improve the motor skills related to this activity. However, whether unrelated skills are also improved is still unclear. To test the impact of physical activity on an unpracticed motor task, 26 young adults completed the international physical activity questionnaire and performed a bimanual coordination task they had never practiced before. Results showed that higher total physical activity predicted higher performance in the bimanual task, controlling for multiple factors such as age, physical inactivity, music practice, and computer games practice. Linear mixed models allowed this effect of physical activity to be generalized to a large population of bimanual coordination conditions. This finding runs counter to the notion that generalized motor abilities do not exist and supports the existence of a “learning to learn” skill that could be improved through physical activity and that impacts performance in tasks that are not necessarily related to the practiced activity.