On the relationship between human sensorimotor adaptability and event-related potentials

It was explored if the speed with which an individual learns to deal with new environments and challenges can be predicted on the basis of his/her brain's response to irrelevant (repeating) and novel auditory stimuli. In this study, 26 subjects threw 30 light-weight balls at a target with and without vision-distorting goggles. The horizontal displacement from a bull's-eye target was measured and the rate and degree of adaptation were computed. The adaptation parameters were correlated with evoked and event-related potential (EP/ERP) measures of the subject's ability to suppress irrelevant information and respond to novel stimuli. Only a weak (or a trend to) correlation was found between the behavioral adaptation and some of the EP/ERP measures. The correlations were limited to EP parameters in the 100 to 200 ms post-stimulus range reflecting the ability to suppress irrelevant information. Thus we conclude that the speed with which an individual adapts to a new environment is at best weakly correlated with brain activity associated with stimulus memory and classification.