Abstract
Prior research has demonstrated that visuomotor adaptation in one limb, in response to reaching with altered visual feedback of the hand, can be transferred to the untrained limb, specifically when participants are aware of the manipulation (Wang, Joshi, & Lei, 2011). The current study asked if explicit and implicit processes engaged during visuomotor adaptation are transferred from the trained to untrained limb and if these processes are retained. Twelve right-handed participants performed a reach training task to three visual targets while seeing a cursor rotated 40° clockwise relative to their hands on a screen. Participants were instructed on how to counteract the perturbation using a strategy. Following the rotated reach training trials, participants were required to complete two types of no-cursor trials with their trained (left) and untrained (right) hands. Specifically, participants were instructed to aim to the target as accurately as possible (to assess implicit contributions) and to use any strategy they had gained during learning (to assess explicit contributions). Results revealed that explicit and implicit components of visuomotor adaptation transferred to the untrained limb following reach training. While retention of explicit contributions to adaptation was seen in both hands 24 hours after initial training, implicit contributions were not retained in either limb. Together, these results reveal that both implicit and explicit contributions to adaptation can be transferred between limbs and that when participants are provided with a strategy, explicit contributions tend to dominate over time.Acknowledgments: Funded by NSERC (Discovery Grant awarded to E. K. Cressman)