Two ways to learn in visuomotor adaptation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Motor Control
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Motor adaptation shows significant individual variability in utilizing fast-explicit and slow-implicit learning processes.
• Prior work identified qualitative differences in adaptation related to memory formation and updating.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate quantitative and qualitative differences in visuomotor adaptation.
• To precisely estimate individual learning and forgetting rates using fast-slow adaptation models.
• To explore distinct learning strategies in visuomotor adaptation.

Main Methods:

• A two-day online visuomotor adaptation task with repeated learning and forgetting blocks.
• Participants adapted to a 30-degree perturbation over three learning blocks.
• Clustering participants into strong and weak learners based on adaptation levels and fitting fast-slow systems.

Main Results:

• Strong learners showed a negative correlation between fast and slow processes, predicting retention and savings, indicative of a fast-slow system.
• Weak learners exhibited retention without savings, suggesting reliance on a single slow system.
• Weak learners demonstrated shorter reaction times during baseline and adaptation compared to strong learners.

Conclusions:

• Visuomotor adaptation involves at least two distinct learning strategies: a fast-slow system and a single slow system.
• Individual differences in learning rates contribute to the recruitment of different adaptation processes.
• Future motor learning studies must account for both quantitative and qualitative individual differences.