Visuo-motor gain adaptation and generalization following left hemisphere stroke

During gain adaptation, participants must learn to adapt to novel visuo-motor mappings in which the movement amplitudes they produce do not match the visual feedback they receive. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural substrates of gain adaptation by examining its possible disruption following left hemisphere stroke. Thirteen chronic left hemisphere stroke patients and five healthy right-handed control subjects completed three experimental phases involving reaching with the left hand, which was the less-affected hand in patients. First, participants reached without visual feedback to six different target locations (baseline phase). Next, in the adaptation phase, participants executed movements to one target under conditions in which the perceived movement distance was 70% of the produced movement distance. Last, in order to test the generalization of this new visuomotor mapping, participants made movements without visual feedback to untrained target locations (generalization phase). Significant between-patient differences were observed during adaptation. Lesion analyses indicated that these between-patient differences were predicted by the amount of damage to the supramarginal gyrus (Brodmann area 40). In addition, patients performed more poorly than controls in the generalization phase, suggesting that different processes are involved in adaptation and generalization periods.