Beyond the Sensorimotor Plasticity: Cognitive Expansion of Prism Adaptation in Healthy Individuals

Abstract

Sensorimotor plasticity allows us to maintain an efficient motor behavior in reaction to environmental changes. One of the classical models for the study of sensorimotor plasticity is prism adaptation. It consists of pointing to visual targets while wearing prismatic lenses that shift the visual field laterally. The conditions of the development of the plasticity and the sensorimotor after-effects have been extensively studied for more than a century. However, the interest taken in this phenomenon was considerably increased since the demonstration of neglect rehabilitation following prism adaptation by Rossetti et al. (1998). Mirror effects, i.e., simulation of neglect in healthy individuals, were observed for the first time by Colent et al. (2000). The present review focuses on the expansion of prism adaptation to cognitive functions in healthy individuals during the last 15 years. Cognitive after-effects have been shown in numerous tasks even in those that are not intrinsically spatial in nature. Altogether, these results suggest the existence of a strong link between low-level sensorimotor plasticity and high-level cognitive functions and raise important questions about the mechanisms involved in producing unexpected cognitive effects following prism adaptation. Implications for the functional mechanisms and neuroanatomical network of prism adaptation are discussed to explain how sensorimotor plasticity may affect cognitive processes.

Prism adaptation modulates connectivity of the intraparietal sulcus with multiple brain networks

“…Right PA in neglect patients ameliorates not only visual abnormalities, such as the rightward shift in line bisection performance, but also extinction of tactile and auditory stimuli on the left, altered perception of time (for a review see Clarke and Crottaz-Herbette, 2016) and impaired mental time travelling (Anelli, n.d.). Left PA produces neglect-like behavior in healthy individuals (Colent et al, 2000;Schintu et al, 2014) and affects not only visuospatial cognition, but also spatial remapping, perception of time (for a review see Michel, 2016), and feedback learning performance (Schintu et al, 2018).…”

“…According to an influential model Striemer and Danckert, 2010) right PA induces its leftward attentional shift in neglect patients by decreasing activity in the intact left hemisphere and increasing it in the right, whereas left PA causes rightward bias in healthy individuals by doing the opposite. A few studies (Luaute et al, 2006;Crottaz-Herbette et al, 2014, 2017) support this model, but others favor a unilateral (Tsujimoto et al, 2018) or a bilateral and unidirectional (Saj et al, 2013) effect.…”

Visuo-motor rotation influences representational acuity but not space representation

“…It develops gradually and is mainly responsible for sensorimotor after-effects (O’Shea et al, 2014). In prism adaptation, realignment may dominate and is responsible for sensorimotor and cognitive after-effects (Michel, 2016; Michel, Pisella, et al, 2003). In force field adaptation however, realignment may be minor and responsible for short-lasting and poorly generalized sensorimotor after-effects (Cothros, Wong, & Gribble, 2006; Kawato, 1999; Kluzik, Diedrichsen, Shadmehr, & Bastian, 2008; Mattar & Ostry, 2007) and non-significant cognitive after-effects (Michel et al, 2018).…”

“…First, we induced either leftward or rightward 15-degree rotations. We adopted that angular amplitude to compare with other experimental protocols that use prism deviations (Michel, 2016). As for prism adaptation, we expected that adaptation to a leftward optical rotation would induce cognitive after-effects (Michel, 2016).…”

“…We adopted that angular amplitude to compare with other experimental protocols that use prism deviations (Michel, 2016). As for prism adaptation, we expected that adaptation to a leftward optical rotation would induce cognitive after-effects (Michel, 2016). Second, we presented the perturbation either abruptly (from one trial to the next) or gradually (over a certain number of trials).…”