Applications of prism adaptation: a tutorial in theory and method

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.12.004

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2005, Pages 431-444

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.12.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

Data and theory from prism adaptation are reviewed for the purpose of identifying control methods in applications of the procedure. Prism exposure evokes three kinds of adaptive or compensatory processes: postural adjustments (visual capture and muscle potentiation), strategic control (including recalibration of target position), and spatial realignment of various sensory-motor reference frames. Muscle potentiation, recalibration, and realignment can all produce prism exposure aftereffects and can all contribute to adaptive performance during prism exposure. Control over these adaptive responses can be achieved by manipulating the locus of asymmetric exercise during exposure (muscle potentiation), the similarity between exposure and post-exposure tasks (calibration), and the timing of visual feedback availability during exposure (realignment).

Section snippets

Empirical observations

When a person first looks through wedge prisms that optically displace the visual field, for example 10° in the rightward direction, the person may have little feeling that anything is out of the ordinary, but then he/she experiences surprising difficulty in perceptual-motor tasks (i.e. direct effects of prism exposure). For example, pointing toward a visual target produces error to the right of target position, where the target is seen to be located. Performance error is gradually reduced to

Adaptive processes

Prism exposure evokes all the mechanisms of adaptive perceptual-motor performance in all their complexity (Redding and Wallace, 1997a). At least three classes of adaptive processes are elicited by prism exposure: postural adjustments, strategic control, and spatial realignment (or ‘true’ adaptation). All of these classes of processes can affect performance during prism exposure where performance feedback is available (direct effects) and performance after prism exposure where performance

Strategic control and spatial alignment

High-level strategic control and low-level spatial alignment are separable, but interdependent. We begin by providing a behavioral definition of the two concepts, we then outline the perceptual-motor organization that supports the two adaptive functions, and finally we consider the manner in which they interact and generalize for the particular exposure task.

Critique of selected applications

In this section, we illustrate with selected, representative applications of prism adaptation the need for more adequate control procedures. We first consider applications where the primary interest was in illuminating the nature of ordinary perceptual-motor control. Then, we examine applications where the interest was in neuropathology, especially unilateral neglect.

Kitazawa et al. (1997) employed the prism adaptation procedure to study the relationship between the kinematics and dynamics of

Conclusions and recommendations

Prism adaptation is not a simple process. Exposure to prismatic displacement evokes all of the processes of adaptive perceptual-motor performance, including postural adjustments (esp. muscle-potentiation), strategic control (esp. recalibration), and differential spatial realignment of various sensory-motor reference frames. Prism adaptation can be used for many different applications, but minimal methodological standards should be met before the procedure is developed for a specific

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants to the second author from INSERM (PROGRES) and ACI Cognitique (plasticité). Special thanks are expressed to Laure Pisella, Alessandro Farnè and Gilles Rode for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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View full text

ReviewApplications of prism adaptation: a tutorial in theory and method

Abstract

Section snippets

Empirical observations

Adaptive processes

Strategic control and spatial alignment

Critique of selected applications

Conclusions and recommendations

Acknowledgements

Behavioral and Brain Research

Acta Psychologica

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Current Biology

Brain Research

Neuropsychologia

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Brain Research

Multimodal representation of space in the posterior parietal cortex and its use in planning movements

Annual Review of Neuroscience

Cerebellar lesions and prism adaptation in macaque monkeys

Journal of Neurophysiology

Adaptation to a visuomotor shift depends on the starting posture

Journal of Neurophysiology

Contribution of proprioception for calibrating and updating the motor space

Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

Constraints on learning new mappings between perceptual dimensions

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Perceptual and cognitive spatial learning

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

A pair of paradoxes and the perceptual pairing process

Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current Psychology of Cognition

Towards a general law of numerical/object identity

Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current Psychology of Cognition

Effects of prismatic adaptation on judgments of spatial extent in peripersonal and extrapersonal space

Neuropsychologia

Prismatic adaptation reduces biased temporal order judgements in spatial neglect

NeuroReport

The rate of adaptation to displacement prisms remains constant despite acquisition of rapid calibration

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

A comparison of sight and touch

Journal of Physiology

Selective use of perceptual recalibration versus visuomotor skill acquisition

Journal of Neurophysiology

Role of posterior parietal cortex in the recalibration of visually guided reaching

Nature

Space and attention in parietal cortex

Annual Review of Neuroscience

Oculomotor adaptation to prisms is not simply a muscle potentiation effect

Perception and Psychophysics

Spatial discordance is a sufficient condition for oculomotor adaptation to prisms: eye muscle potentiation need not be a factor

Perception and Psychophysics

Modifications in end positions of arm movements following short term saccadic adaptation

NeuroReport

Adaptation to displaced vision: variations on the ‘prismatic shaping’ technique

Perception and Psychophysics

The possible role of eye-muscle potentiation in several forms of prism adaptation

Perception

Additivity of aftereffects of maintained head and eye rotations: an alternative to recalibration

Perception and Psychophysics

Distance adaptation depends upon plasticity in the oculomotor control system

Perception and Psychophysics

Eye movements tell only half the story: analysing scan paths to chimeric faces in a patient with neglect pre and post prism adaptation

Neurology

Learning motor synergies makes use of information on muscular load

Learning and Memory

Long-lasting amelioration of visuospatial neglect by prism adaptation

Brain

A neural model of perceptual-motor alignment

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Beware the straight-ahead shift: a nonperceptual change in experiments on adaptation to displaced vision

Perception

Visual and proprioceptive adaptation to optical displacement of the visual stimulus

Journal of Experimental Psychology

Visual capture produced by prism spectacles

Psychonomic Science

Cahiers de Psychologie

Analyse de la réorganisation des coordinations visuo-motrices chez l'homme (Analysis of the reorganization of visual-motor coordination in man.)

L'Année Psychologique (Paris)

Neglect and related disorders

Review
Applications of prism adaptation: a tutorial in theory and method