The effect of visual uncertainty on implicit motor adaptation

 What is sensorimotor adaptation? Why do the authors use this term rather than motor learning? What are some of the key features of sensorimotor adaptation, and in particular, why is the focus here on error-based learning? How do the author's results change the way we think about how visual uncertainty impacts adaptation?  

Out of the University of California, Professor Richard Ivry and JT Tsay discuss their recently published manuscript titled “The effect of visual uncertainty on implicit motor adaptation.” Sensorimotor adaptation is influenced by both the size and variance of error information. In the present study, we varied visual uncertainty and error size in a factorial manner and evaluated their joint effect on adaptation, using a feedback method that avoids inherent limitations with standard visuomotor tasks. Uncertainty attenuated adaptation but only when the error was small. This striking interaction highlights a novel constraint for models of sensorimotor adaptation.

 

Check out the article here: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00493.2020 

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