Visual Information of Endpoint Position Is Not Required for Prism Adaptation of Shooting Task

Abstract

Humans can easily adapt to a visually distorted environment: We can make correct movements after a few dozens of actions with visual guidance in the new environment. However, it is unclear what visual information our brain uses for this visuo-motor adaptation. To answer this question, we conducted a behavioral experiment of prism adaption of a ball shooting task, with manipulating visual information of the ball. We found that prism adaptation occurred when the position of ball impact (or endpoint) was not visually presented. A similar result was replicated in a modified experimental setup where the vision of the body was completely eliminated. These results imply that the error information at the time of hit/impact (i.e., the displacement between the target and the hit position) is not required for prism adaptation. This suggests that the visual information of on-the-fly ball trajectory can be utilized for prism adaptation.