A study is reported of the sensory and oculomotor factors that influence adaptation to visual displacement when only sight of the hand and of a target light is permitted. Ten subjects each participated in five counterbalanced sessions in which the relative contributions to adaptation of limb proprioception, oculomotor pursuit, retinal image displacement, and attention were determined. Recordings of eye position were taken throughout the sessions. A discordance between the visual direction of the hand and the proprioceptively specified position of the hand was essential but not sufficient for adaptation to occur. When such a discordance was present adaptation was enhanced by improving position sense of the arm by moving it passively, maximizing accuracy of visual tracking, and focusing attention on the hand. Attentional factors played a smaller part than has been reported for exposure situations involving error feedback about limb position. Eye-movement recordings showed that tracking the passively moved hand visually was vastly superior to tracking a target light undergoing comparable motion.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlnaesE, 1967“Static and dynamic properties of Golgi tendon organs in the anterior tibial and soleus muscles of the cat”Acta Physiologica Scandinavica70176–187.
2.
CanonL K, 1970“Intermodality inconsistency of input and directed attention as determinants of the nature of adaptation”Journal of Experimental Psychology84141–147.
3.
CanonL K, 1971“Directed attention and maladaptive ‘adaptation’ to displacement of the visual field”Journal of Experimental Psychology88403–408.
4.
DallosPJonesR, 1963“Learning behavior of the eye fixation control system”IEEE Transactions on Automatic ControlAC8218–227.
5.
EdwardsD CGoolkasianP A, 1974“Peripheral visual location and kinds of complex processing”Journal of Experimental Psychology102244–249.
6.
GlennyGHeywoodS, 1979“Hans Gertz revisited: The different effects of invisibility and darkness on pursuit eye movements”Perception831–36.
7.
GoodwinG MMcCloskeyD IMatthewsP B C, 1972“The contribution of muscle afferents to kinesthesia shown by vibration induced illusions of movement and by the effects of paralysing joint afferents”Brain95705–748.
8.
GregoryR L, 1958“Eye movements and the stability of the visual world”Nature (London)1821214–1216.
9.
GriggP, 1976“Response of joint afferent neurons in cat medial articular nerve to active and passive movements of the knee”Brain Research118482–485.
10.
HeldRFreedmanS, 1963“Plasticity in human sensorimotor control”Science142455–462.
11.
HeldRGottliebN, 1958“Technique for studying adaptation to disarranged hand—eye coordination”Perceptual and Motor Skills883–86.
12.
HeldRHeinA, 1958“Adaptation to disarranged hand—eye coordination contingent upon reafferent stimulation”Perceptual and Motor Skills883–86.
13.
HowardI PCraskeBTempletonW B, 1965“Visuomotor adaptation to discordant ex-afferent stimulation”Journal of Experimental Psychology70189–191.
14.
HowardI PTempletonW B, 1966Human Spatial Orientation (New York: John Wiley)
15.
JordanS, 1970“Ocular pursuit movement as a function of visual and proprioceptive stimulation”Vision Research10775–780.
16.
KelsoJ A SCookEOlsonM EEpsteinW, 1975“Allocation of attention and the locus of adaptation to displaced vision”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance1237–245.
17.
LacknerJ R, 1973“A device for investigating adaptation to sensory rearrangement”Journal of Psychology85137–141.
18.
LacknerJ R, 1974“Adaptation to displaced vision: Role of proprioception”Perceptual and Motor Skills381251–1256.
LacknerJ R, 1977“Adaptation to visual and proprioceptive rearrangement: Origin of the differential effectiveness of active and passive movement”Perception and Psychophysics2155–59.
21.
LacknerJ R, 1981“Some aspects of sensory—motor control and adaptation in man” in Intersensory Perception Eds PickHWalkR (New York: Plenum Press) pp 143–173.
22.
LacknerJ RLevineM S, 1978“Visual direction depends on the operation of spatial constancy mechanisms: The oculobrachial illusion”Neuroscience Letters7207–212.
23.
LacknerJ RLobovitsD, 1977“Adaptation to displaced vision: Evidence for prolonged aftereffects”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology2965–69.
24.
LittmanDBecklenR, 1976“Selective looking with minimal eye movements”Perception and Psychophysics2077–79.
25.
MatherJLacknerJ R, 1975“Adaptation to visual rearrangement elicited by tonic vibration reflexes”Experimental Brain Research24103–105.
26.
MatherJLacknerJ R, 1977“Adaptation to visual rearrangement: Role of sensory discordance”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology29237–244.
27.
MatherJLacknerJ R, 1980a“Visual tracking of active and passive movements of the hand”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology32307–316.
28.
MatherJLacknerJ R, 1980b“Adaptation to visual displacement with active and passive limb movements: Effect of movement frequency and predictability of movement”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology32317–324.
29.
MatthewsP B C, 1972Mammalian Muscle Receptors and Their Central Actions (London: Edward Arnold).
30.
McCloskeyD I, 1978“Kinesthetic sensibility”Physiological Reviews58763–820.
31.
MountcastleVPowellT, 1959“Central nervous mechanisms subserving position sense and kinesthesis”Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital4173–200.
32.
NeisserU, 1976Cognition and Reality (San Francisco, Calif.: W H Freeman).
33.
Von NoordenG KMackensenG, 1962“Pursuit movement of normal and amblyopic eyes. 1. Physiology of pursuit movements”American Journal of Opthalmology53325–336.
34.
StarkLVossiusGYoungL, 1962“Predictive control of tracking eye movements”IRE Transactions on Human Factors in ElectronicsHFE-352–57.
35.
SteinbachM J, 1969“Eye tracking of self-moved targets: The role of efference”Journal of Experimental Psychology82366–376.
36.
SteinbachM JHeldR, 1968“Eye tracking of observer-generated target movements”Science161187–188.
37.
WallachH, 1968“Informational discrepancy as a basis of perceptual adaptation” in The Neuropsychology of Spatially Oriented Behavior Ed. FreedmanS J (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press) pp 209–229.
38.
WestheimerG, 1954“Eye movement responses to a horizontally moving visual stimulus AMAArchives of Opthalmology52932–941.
39.
YachzelBLacknerJ R, 1977“Adaptation to displaced vision: Evidence for transfer of adaptation and long-lasting aftereffects”Perception and Psychophysics22147–151.
