Interlimb transfer after adaptation to visual displacement: patterns predicted from the functional closeness of limb neural control centres.

Abstract

Two experiments were designed to determine whether interlimb transfer of prism adaptation follows a pattern predicted by the functional closeness of limb control centres. Subjects were adapted to a lateral displacing prism with their right arm in conditions known to facilitate interlimb transfer. Negative aftereffect measures of target-pointing shift were taken for all limbs. If transfer to the unadapted limbs is primarily the result of some sort of visual change, scores for those limbs should not differ. However, if the functional cerebral closeness of limb control centres is a factor, the greatest shift should be evidenced in the homologous contralateral limb (left arm), followed by the ipsilateral limb (right leg), with the least shift to the diagonally opposite limb (left leg). No differences in shift among the three unadapted limbs was found in the two experiments.