Motor adaptation and proprioceptive recalibration

Goal-directed reaches are rapidly adapted after reaching with misaligned visual feedback of the hand. It has been suggested that reaching with misaligned visual feedback of the hand also results in proprioceptive recalibration (i.e., realigning proprioceptive estimates of hand position to match visual estimates). In this chapter, we review a series of experiments conducted in our lab which examine this proposal. We assessed proprioceptive recalibration by comparing subjects' estimates of the position at which they felt their hand was aligned with a reference marker (visual or proprioceptive) before and after aiming with a misaligned cursor that was typically rotated 30° clockwise (CW) with respect to the hand. In general, results indicated that subjects recalibrated proprioception such that their estimates of felt hand position were shifted in the same direction that they adapted their reaches. Moreover, proprioception was recalibrated to a similar extent of motor adaptation (∼30%), regardless of how the hand was positioned during the estimate trials (active or passive placement), the location or modality of the reference marker (visual or proprioceptive), the hand used during reach training (right or left), how the distortion was introduced (gradual or abrupt), and age (young or older subjects) and the magnitude of the visuomotor distortion introduced (30° or 50° or 70°). These results suggest that in addition to recalibrating the sensorimotor transformations underlying reaching movements, visuomotor adaptation results in partial proprioceptive recalibration.