Inter-task transfer of prism adaptation depends on exposed task mastery

Abstract

The sensorimotor system sets up plastic alterations to face new demands. Terms such as adaptation and learning are broadly used to describe a variety of processes underlying this aptitude. The mechanisms whereby transformations acquired to face a perturbation generalize to other situations or stay context-dependent remain weakly understood. Here, we compared the performance of hand pointing vs throwing to visual targets while facing an optical shift of the visual field (prismatic deviation). We found that the transfer of compensations was conditioned by the task performed during exposure to the perturbation: compensations transferred from pointing to throwing but not at all from throwing to pointing. Additionally, expertise on the task performed during exposure had a marked influence on the amount of transfer to the non-exposed task: throwing experts (dart players) remarkably transferred compensations to the pointing task. Our results reveal that different processes underlying these distinct transfer properties may be at work to face a given perturbation. Their solicitation depends on mastery for the exposed task, which is responsible for different patterns of inter-task transfer. An important implication is that transfer properties, and not only after-effects, should be included as a criterion for adaptation. At the theoretical level, we suggest that tasks may need to be mastered before they can be subjected to adaptation, which has new implications for the distinction between learning and adaptation.

Does anodal cerebellar tDCS boost transfer of after-effects from throwing to pointing during prism adaptation?

“…The results showed that after-effects tended to decrease across repetitions of trials, demonstrating that throwing after-effects were labile. This is reminiscent with our previous investigations of after-effects during throwing prism exposure (Fleury et al, 2020) and with previous studies using throwing during PA procedure (Martin et al, 1996a;Fernández-Ruiz et al, 2000). Patient studies previously demonstrated the crucial role of the cerebellum in PA, both in error reduction and after-effects (e.g., Weiner et al, 1983;Pisella et al, 2005), by using pointing tasks.…”

“…During pre-tests and post-tests, we computed terminal errors by grouping the right and central targets as a previous study using the same procedures reported no difference between targets (Fleury et al, 2020(Fleury et al, , 2021. We conducted a specific analysis of pointing trajectories for right and central targets as the initial directions and the length of trajectories were intrinsically dependent on the target position.…”

“…Beyond basic after-effects, an important issue is whether they are specific to the situation in which the perturbation has been experienced or whether they can be observed in other contexts, such as a different task ( Poggio and Bizzi, 2004 ; Fleury et al, 2020 ). This represents a crucial interest in the field of neurorehabilitation.…”

“…For example, participants can perform a pointing task during prism exposure. Then, once the perturbation is removed, after-effects can be assessed both on the same task (i.e., pointing) and on a different task (e.g., throwing) to assess after-effects transfer ( Alexander et al, 2013 ; Fleury et al, 2020 ).…”

Interlimb Transfer of Reach Adaptation Does Not Require an Intact Corpus Callosum: Evidence from Patients with Callosal Lesions and Agenesis

“…Three patients with corpus callosum disorders (MS, MM, and AM) and 16 healthy individuals participated in the study. The number of healthy participants reflect the sample size used in similar studies ( Wang and Sainburg, 2003 ; Morton and Bastian, 2004 ; Perez et al, 2007a ; O’Shea et al, 2014 ; Lefumat et al, 2015 ; Leclere et al, 2019 ; Striemer et al, 2019 ; Bao et al, 2020 ; Fleury et al, 2020 ; Renault et al, 2020 ). Patient MS was a 50-year-old left-handed female with recently acquired lesions of the body of the corpus callosum, sparing the splenium and the genu.…”