Updating Full-Body Sport Motor Memory Through Sensorimotor Prediction Error and Reconsolidation

Repetitive correction alone often fails to destabilize established engrams, producing proactive interference from the original habit during high-pressure performance. While human motor reconsolidation has been shown in simple laboratory tasks, its generalization to full-body sport skills remains unknown. This study tests whether a single prediction-error (PE) event can gate reconsolidation to update a consolidated suboptimal motor habit. We propose a three-day protocol in soccer players with an asymmetrical kicking pattern. Day 1: 3D motion capture (100 Hz, 39 markers) records bilateral kicking kinematics to identify a kinematic deviation in the non-dominant leg relative to the dominant-leg pattern. Day 2: after warm-up and baseline recalibration, players perform a single surprise kick with a disguised ultra-light ball generating sensorimotor PE, immediately followed by guided corrective practice with a standard ball. A control group performs equivalent correction without prior PE. Day 3 (24 h later): kinematic retest assesses whether the corrected pattern persists. We hypothesize that only the PE group will show stable kinematic correction at delayed retest, as the mismatch destabilizes the consolidated engram, allowing corrective kinematics to update the habit trace via reconsolidation, whereas controls will exhibit habit recurrence.