Transfer of sensorimotor adaptation between different movement categories.

Full Abstract

It is well known that sensorimotor adaptation will transfer from the practiced to the unpracticed arm, which has been taken as evidence that adaptation is located in the brain before the divergence point for left and right arm control. We now explore whether adaptation will transfer between different movement categories as well. Subjects were exposed to a 60-deg visual rotation first in a tracking and then in a pointing task, or vice versa. We found a substantial transfer of adaptation between tasks, but its magnitude was larger from pointing to tracking than from tracking to pointing. This benefit of pointing persisted when the use of cognitive strategies was minimized by a concurrent, attention-demanding task, but it was lost when pointing amplitudes were very small. We conclude that adaptation is located in the brain before the divergence point for different movement categories, and that movements with a large ballistic component facilitate adaptation transfer.

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Author information

Author/s: Abeele, Sylvie (S); Bock, Otmar (O);

Affiliation: Institute of Physiology, German Sports University, 50927 Köln, Germany.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale (Exp Brain Res), published in Germany. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jan; vol 148 (issue 1) : pp 128-32

Dates: Created 2002/12/12; Completed 2003/06/18; Revised 2008/02/15;

PMID: 12478403, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adaptation, Physiological - physiology
Adult
Arm - physiology
Brain - physiology
Female
Humans
Learning - physiology

Male
Motor Cortex - physiology
Movement - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Somatosensory Cortex - physiology
Transfer (Psychology) - physiology

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