Specific Aspects in the Adaptation of Human Eye-Hand-Coordination

Abstract

Sensorimotor control, especially eye-hand-coordination, enables us to interact with our environment. In my dissertation I describe and discuss three specific aspects of the adaptation of eye-hand-coordination: 1) the relative weight of visual and proprioceptive adaptation, 2) spatial and proprioceptive generalization of adaptation, and 3) acquisition of alternative mappings with repeated adaptations. The first aspect of sensorimotor adaptation is how an ambiguous mismatch between visual and proprioceptive coordinate systems is resolved. In my experiment I showed that an auditory pacing signal is an important factor facilitating visual adaptation. As a second aspect I examined the generalization of prism adaptation over space. Based on my results I can explain all previous results as an underestimation of change in the guiding system. The third aspect is the acquisition of alternate mappings (dual-adaptation) together with learning to learn. Confirming the involvement of learning to learn, I also found that the efficiency of dual-adaptation only depends on the total number of trials irrespective of their segmentation in blocks of differing lengths.