Motor adaptation to environment changes predicting interactable object behaviour can be flexible and implicit

Abstract

The human motor system can adapt to perturbations by updating existing models of motor control or by creating context-specific motor memories or strategies. We investigate if motor adaptation is context-informed when a perturbation is applied to either the throw direction of a ball, or the acceleration of the ball post-release during a virtual throw-to-target task. Using the visual slant of the task surface in an immersive virtual environment, we determine if the tendency for model updating is influenced by informative visual cues that predict perturbations to intended actions. Our findings reveal that perturbations resembling accelerations enabled flexible motor adaptation regardless of the presence of the slant cue. Perturbations in the throw direction conversely led to internal model updating. Additionally, visual slant properties of the task surface elicited implicit, slant-specific changes in performance. Our findings underscore the role of visual properties of both perturbations and environments in flexible motor learning.