Aprendizado Motor como um processo de otimização de padrões motores primitivos

Abstract

Introduction: Motor learning is the continuous development of increasingly efficient motor strategies to overcome the various environmental demands throughout life. Due to their specific characteristics, the Tai Chi Chuan (TC) movements favor biomechanical studies that seek to identify important motor learning parameters. Objectives: to outline the kinematic characteristics of the movements undertaken by the TC and attest if there is an optimizing behavior towards primitive motor patterns in motor learning processes and their movements. Methodology: This is an integrative review followed by an observational cross-sectional study. For the integrative review, publications from PubMed, Cochrane Library, Pedro and Scielo databases were selected, in addition to citations of concerning original research and review articles for any supporting study. The selection criteria were: articles published both in Portuguese and English that tracked biomechanical analysis of TC movements, without publication timeline restrictions. some keywords used were TC and other correlated ones, in addition to terms such as biomechanics, kinematics, movement, biomechanical phenomena and motion capture. In the observational study’s methodology, data from a secondary base were analyzed. Also, highly accurate kinematic data from 12 TC practitioners, who were divided into 4 groups according to skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert) and during 3 interpretations of 13 specific techniques, were analyzed. A movement decomposition model, the Movement Element Decomposition (MED), was then applied, which was capable of identifying aspects that indicate motor gesture optimization such as the Number of Movement Elements per time (Nt), the Number of Movement Peaks (Np) and Motion Smoothing (W) as cost savings over time. Results: it was identified 13 publications with similar methods of analysis, which described TC movements as slow, wide, smooth, with fewer starts and with a lower center of gravity, performing greater variation in its trajectory. In the observational study, through the Kruskal Wallis test, a significant difference was observed in more experienced practitioners when it came to the reduction of Nt, to the increase of Np and also to W. Conclusions: TC movements are slower, larger, smoother and more fluid. In more experienced practitioners, a gesture optimization behavior is observed, characterized by a smaller Nt, which means lesser movement elements necessary for the movement and larger Np associated with a slower W curve, indicating greater control and smoothness, even in more complex movements.