Hybrid virtual reality object lifting matches real-world object lifting

Abstract

Visual feedback and prior experience support anticipatory force control, its learning, and online force adjustments during dexterous object manipulation. How proprioceptive reliability contributes to object manipulation remains poorly understood. Hybrid virtual reality (VR), which pairs physical object interaction with virtual visual feedback, permits controlled visuo-proprioceptive offsets, offering a promising experimental model of proprioceptive unreliability. Since replacing direct vision with virtual visual feedback could itself affect manipulation, we compared real-world object manipulation with no-offset hybrid-VR manipulation in 15 healthy young adults. Participants lifted a visually symmetric inverted T-shaped object with an asymmetric mass distribution, either viewed directly or through VR, while preventing tilt toward the weighted side. After either one or five lifts, the mass distribution switched to the opposite side. Across environments, anticipatory torque increased with repeated lifts, and five preceding lifts produced greater post switch error than one (i.e., repetition-induced anterograde interference). We detected no significant differences between environments in the learning rate of anticipatory force control, trial-to-trial position-force adjustment, or switch-related interference. These findings characterize behavioral patterns across the two environments and provide a necessary foundation for future studies using controlled visuo-proprioceptive offsets to test how proprioceptive unreliability affects object manipulation.