Factors Affecting Sensory and Motor Learning

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Basic Science
• Interventions: Behavioral: Explanatory diagram; Behavioral: Direct vision; Behavioral: Attend to the targets; Behavioral: No movement feedback; Behavioral: Movement feedback, pointing hand; Behavioral: Movement feedback, target hand

• Registration Number: NCT05374460
• Lead Sponsor: Indiana University

Brief Summary

How participants perceive the position of their own hand in various contexts will be examined. This will include changing the visual display to suggest the hand is in a slightly different position, and asking participants to indicate where they think it is by pointing with their other hand.

Detailed Description

Hand position can be estimated visually, from an image on the retina, and proprioceptively, from sensors in the joints, muscles, and skin. The brain is thought to weight and combine available sensory estimates to form an integrated multisensory estimate. Inherent in this process is the capacity to realign one or both sensory estimates when they become spatially mismatched, as when washing dishes with the hands immersed in water, which refracts light. It is generally assumed that if a person knows about the sensory mismatch somehow, the realignment will not occur. This assumption will be tested in two experiments by giving people this information in different ways. Expt. A: Conscious awareness of the mismatch will be presented in different ways, or absent. Expt. B: Movement error feedback will be presented in different ways, or absent.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-04-29
• Study First Submitted: 2022-05-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-05-10
• Study First Posted: 2022-05-16
• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-11-25
• Last Update Posted: 2024-11-27
• Primary Completion: 2025-04-30
• Study Completion: 2025-04-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 300

Inclusion Criteria

• Between the ages of 18-45 years old
• Right-handed.
• Covid has been found to have neurological effects in some people, but mostly the effects on sensorimotor control and neurophysiology are unknown. So we will only include individuals who report being free of Covid symptoms in week preceding testing.

Exclusion Criteria

• Past or present history of seizure, stroke, any brain or peripheral nerve disease, severe head trauma, or spinal cord surgery.
• Learning or attention conditions such as ADHD.
• Orthopedic or pain conditions, or a history of seriously injured bones, joints or muscles in either arm.
• Lack of normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Conscious awareness: Explanatory diagram	Explanatory diagram	Told in advance about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch, which will be explained with a diagram. Hand remains hidden.
Conscious awareness: Direct vision of hand	Direct vision	Foamboard under mirror removed, making the mirror see-through and the hand directly visible.
Conscious awareness: No information	Attend to the targets	Told nothing about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch. Hand remains hidden beneath mirror that shows visual display. (control)
Movement feedback: No feedback	No movement feedback	No movement feedback (control)
Movement feedback: Pointing hand	Movement feedback, pointing hand	Movement feedback about the pointing hand.
Movement feedback: Target hand	Movement feedback, target hand	Movement feedback about the target hand.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Realignment	1 day	Measured by comparing where the subject points on a touchscreen when indicating perceived position of visual and proprioceptive targets early vs. late in the behavioral task.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Visuo-proprioceptive weighting	1 day	The degree to which participant relies on vision vs. proprioception when both are available. Measured by comparing where the subject points on a touchscreen when indicating perceived position of visual vs. proprioceptive targets.
Target estimation variance	1 day.	Variance with which participant estimate visual and proprioceptive target positions. Computed from where subjects point at targets on a touchscreen.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Hannah Block; 🇺🇸 Bloomington, Indiana, United States