Authors: Markus Raab Rita F de Oliveira Jörg Schorer Mathias Hegele
Publish Date: 2013/05/12
Volume: 228, Issue: 2, Pages: 155-160
Abstract
Visually guided tracking paradigms can provide insight into the adaptability of motor control strategies We argue that the question of whether a sensorimotor process or its absence is beneficial or detrimental for performance is one that needs to be answered relative to the sensory cues available in the environment and the given task constraints In this paper we describe how and when environmental cues have taskdependent benefits We used a new pursuittracking paradigm and added removed or replaced cues within the same tracking task in either predictable or unpredictable environments to investigate the use and adaptability of different control strategies Participants were invited to perform a tracking task over six blocks in six different conditions Compared to a condition where both target and control cursor cues were visible performance was maintained when a cue was added and decreased when a cue was removed Our results show that participants only learned to use new cues if the old one was removed and the replacement was valid This means that the sensorimotor system adapts only if forced to do so instead of constantly exploiting optimization strategies
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