Reductions in muscle coactivation and metabolic cost during visuomotor adaptation

We often have to adapt our movements as we interact with a variety of objects in various conditions on a daily basis. Evidence suggests that motor adaptation relies on a process that minimizes error and effort; however, much of this evidence involved adapting to novel dynamics with physical perturbations to counteract. To examine the generality of the process of minimizing error and effort during motor adaptation, we used a visuomotor adaptation task that did not involve dynamic perturbations. We investigated the time courses of muscle activity, coactivation, and metabolic cost as subjects reached to a target with a visuomotor rotation. We wanted to determine whether subjects would modulate muscle activity, coactivation, and metabolic cost during a visuomotor adaptation task. Interestingly, subjects increased muscle coactivation early during visuomotor adaptation when there were large cursor-trajectory errors but no physical perturbations to reject. As adaptation progressed, muscle activity and coactivation decreased. Metabolic cost followed a similar time course. When the perturbation was removed, typical after-effects were observed: trajectory error increased and then was reduced quickly. This was accompanied by increases in muscle activity, coactivation, and metabolic cost, along with subsequent rapid reductions. These results demonstrate that subjects modulate muscle activity, coactivation, and metabolic cost similarly across different forms of motor adaptation. Overall, our findings suggest that minimization of error and effort may be a general process underlying various forms of motor adaptation.