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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 15, 2026

Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults

Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults

Published on: February 12, 2020

Prism adaptation by mental practice.

Carine Michel¹, Jérémie Gaveau, Thierry Pozzo

¹Université de Bourgogne, Campus Universitaire, UFR STAPS, Dijon, France. Carine.Michel@u-bourgogne.fr

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior

|January 2, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Sensorimotor adaptation occurs even with imagined arm movements during prism exposure. Mental practice under prism conditions demonstrates adaptation, primarily through proprioceptive recalibration, though less effectively than actual movements.

Keywords:

Arm movements Motor imagery Prism adaptation Sensorimotor plasticity

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Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults

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Published on: April 24, 2017

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensorimotor control
Motor learning

Background:

Sensorimotor adaptation is vital for adjusting actions based on environmental interactions.
Prism adaptation, a common paradigm, involves correcting visual-field deviations.
Adaptation typically combines sensory feedback with internal predictions (forward models).

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate prism adaptation during mental actions (imagined movements).
To determine if sensorimotor adaptation can occur without physical execution of movements.
To explore the role of proprioceptive recalibration in adaptation during mental practice.

Main Methods:

Two experiments involving participants exposed to prisms.
Groups included actual arm movements (Prisms-Active) and imagined movements (Prisms-Imagery).
Pointing errors were measured before and after prism exposure to quantify adaptation.

Main Results:

Significant prism adaptation was observed in both Prisms-Active and Prisms-Imagery conditions.
Sensorimotor adaptation was primarily driven by proprioceptive realignment in both groups.
Adaptation was consistently greater following actual movements compared to imagined ones.

Conclusions:

This study provides the first evidence of prism adaptation through mental practice.
Internal forward models and sensorimotor plasticity contribute to adaptation during imagined actions.
Mental rehearsal can induce sensorimotor recalibration, highlighting the brain's predictive capabilities.