Effects of prismatic adaptation on judgements of spatial extent in peripersonal and extrapersonal space

Recent research has shown that visuomotor adaptation to a lateral displacement of the visual field induces significant perceptual aftereffects in normal observers, and in right hemisphere patients with spatial neglect [Neuroreport 11 (2000) 1899; Nature 395 (1998) 166]. These findings suggest that adaptive realignment following prism exposure induces a bias in visual space perception, even in tasks that require no visually guided motor response. Given recent neurophysiological and behavioural data suggesting independent visual representations for peripersonal and extrapersonal space, here we asked whether adaptive aftereffects extend beyond participants' immediate reaching space to stimuli presented beyond arms' reach (i.e. in extrapersonal space). Thirty-two participants underwent adaptive realignment to 10 degrees left- or right-displacing wedge-prisms. Before and after adaptation participants performed a visual landmark task that required estimation of the midpoint of horizontal line stimuli. There was a significant rightward shift in visual midpoint judgements following adaptation to left-deviating prisms, which was evident in both peripersonal and extrapersonal space. Paradoxically, a significant rightward shift also occurred following adaptation to right-deviating prisms, but only in extrapersonal space. We suggest that the pattern of adaptive aftereffects observed reflects the different reference frames used by participants to perform spatial judgements in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. We also propose that an underlying hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of spatial errors during adaptation may contribute to the direction of aftereffects in both normal observers, and in patients with unilateral lesions.