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Switching between visuomotor mappings: learning absolute mappings or relative shifts
Loes C J van Dam1, David J Hawellek, Marc O Ernst
1Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany. loes.van_dam@uni-bielefeld.de
Journal of Vision
|March 1, 2013
Summary
Switching between visuomotor mappings accelerates learning. Participants learn absolute visuomotor mappings signaled by contextual cues, not just the relative shifts between them, aiding adaptation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Motor Control
Background:
- Adaptation to visuomotor transformations is crucial for goal-directed movements.
- Faster adaptation is observed when switching between different visuomotor mappings.
- The underlying learning mechanism (absolute mappings vs. relative shifts) remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether contextual cues encode absolute visuomotor mappings or relative shifts between them.
- To understand the learning process during repeated switching between visuomotor mappings.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed a rapid pointing task with color cues indicating specific visuomotor mappings.
- Extensive training involved switching between multiple mappings.
- Catch trials with a changed cue and no visual feedback assessed adaptation performance.
Main Results:
- Contextual cues were found to signal absolute visuomotor mappings.
- Adaptation performance in catch trials indicated reliance on cue-specific absolute mappings.
- Results did not support the encoding of relative shifts between mappings.
Conclusions:
- Contextual cues in visuomotor adaptation tasks represent absolute mappings.
- This finding clarifies the nature of learning during switching tasks.
- Understanding cue-based encoding is vital for explaining motor learning and adaptation.
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