ARPA: Augmented Reality Prism Adaptation induces sensorimotor and visuospatial effects

Prism adaptation (PA) is a well-established method for sensorimotor recalibration and influencing visuospatial processing. It is also one of the rehabilitation approaches for neglect patients. Recent studies have shown effective adaptation in virtual reality (VR) settings simulating the classic PA procedure. However, no research has explored prism adaptation in augmented reality (AR), which combines the advantages of VR with greater ecological validity, allowing individuals to perform a virtual PA procedure in a real environment with natural visual feedback from their own hand. The present study introduces Augmented Reality Prism Adaptation (ARPA), a novel procedure that incorporates the benefits of AR with the classic PA technique. Forty-eight healthy participants underwent either leftward or rightward ARPA, and their sensorimotor and visuospatial aftereffects were evaluated immediately post-ARPA and over a 40-minute period. Results revealed significant and long-lasting sensorimotor aftereffects following both leftward and rightward ARPA, while only leftward ARPA induced an immediate rightward visuospatial aftereffect. Importantly, we investigated the generalization of these changes to the real environment, finding that ARPA-induced sensorimotor aftereffects extended beyond the virtual setting. While these findings show that ARPA produces both sensorimotor and visuospatial aftereffects, further research is essential to evaluate its applicability and effectiveness in neglect rehabilitation.