Motor adaptation to a small force field superimposed on a large background force

The human motor system adapts to novel force field perturbations during reaching by forming an internal model of the external dynamics and by modulating arm impedance. We studied whether it uses similar strategies when the perturbation is superimposed on a much larger background force. Consistent with the Weber-Fechner law for force perception, subjects had greater difficulty consciously perceiving the force field perturbation when it was superimposed on the large background force. However, they still adapted to the perturbation, decreasing trajectory distortion with repeated reaching and demonstrating kinematic after effects when the perturbation was unexpectedly removed. They also adapted by increasing their arm impedance when the background force was not present, but did not vary the arm impedance when the background force was present. The identified parameters of a previously proposed mathematical model of motor adaptation changed significantly with the presence of the background force. These results indicate that the motor system maintains its sensitivity for internal model formation even when there are large background forces that mask perception. Further, the motor system modulates arm impedance differently in response to the same perturbation depending on the background force onto which that perturbation is superimposed. Finally, these results suggest that computational models of motor adaptation will likely need to include force-dependent parameters to accurately predict errors.