Multisensory Effects of Force Field Adaptation

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2017-07
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[Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University
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Sensory and motor systems in the brain are highly interconnected and interact in complex ways, making it difficult for clinicians to determine which system is impaired and which to target with interventions after a stroke, for example. In addition, sensory and motor processes are inseparable during natural behavior. Sensory information contributes to motor responses, making it difficult to study sensory and motor processes independently. For example, to plan an accurate reach, the brain must have an accurate initial estimate of the hand’s position. This information can be encoded by both vision, via the image of the hand on the retina, and proprioception (position sense), via sensors in the joints and muscles. The brain is thought to weight and combine available sensory estimates to form an integrated multisensory estimate of hand position with which to guide movement. Motor learning studies have suggested that when learning to move straight ahead despite a force field pushing the hand to the right or left, changes are not only made to the motor system, but also to the proprioceptive estimate of hand position. However, it is unknown whether force field adaptation affects multisensory perception. Given that multisensory integration plays a key role in movement planning, one possibility is that force field adaptation affects all relevant sensory modalities similarly. Alternatively, the sensory effects of force adaptation may be specific to proprioception. I worked on developing an experimental paradigm to address this question in healthy adults. Subjects completed two experimental sessions, a force field session and a null field session. Before and after the adaptation block of reaches with the right hand, subjects completed a sensory estimation task in which they pointed with the left hand to the perceived position of the right hand using vision, proprioception, or both. Group results suggest that both visual and proprioceptive estimates of right hand position were systematically realigned after force field learning, supporting the idea that motor learning has multisensory effects.
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Thesis (M.A.) - Indiana University, Kinesiology, 2017
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