Abstract
Visuomotor adaptation is accompanied by sensory changes, such that one’s sense of felt hand position (i.e., proprioception) is shifted in the directed of the visual distortion. In addition to shifts in perceived hand position, recent work suggests that one’s ability to localize their hand in space becomes more variable (i.e., less precise), at least when first training to reach with a visuomotor distortion. The current research looked to determine changes in precision of hand localization across visuomotor adaptation (i.e., early to late training), and in a retention interval. Participants trained to reach with cursor feedback that was rotated 40° clockwise relative to their hand motion. Throughout these training trials, participants completed a localization task in which they indicated when a visual cue was aligned with their hand position. Following a washout period of reaching with aligned cursor feedback, participants looked to re-adapt their reaches to the 40° cursor rotation and localize their hand. As seen previously, sense of hand position was immediately shifted clockwise in the direction of the altered cursor feedback during training and retention trials. Regarding precision of hand localization, hand estimates were less precise across reach training trials (i.e., early and late trials), and within the retention interval. Precision in hand localization only returned to baseline levels after the washout period. These results suggest that visuomotor adaptation leads to proprioceptive recalibration and reduces the precision with which one is able to localize their hand position.
Key words: Proprioceptive recalibration, position sense, visuomotor adaptation, motor learning.
