PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nadine Schlichting
AU  - Tatiana Kartashova
AU  - Michael Wiesing
AU  - Eckart Zimmermann
TI  - Temporal perturbations cause movement-context independent but modality-specific sensorimotor adaptation
AID  - 10.1101/2021.03.31.437803
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.03.31.437803
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/21/2021.03.31.437803.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/21/2021.03.31.437803.full
AB  - Complex, goal-directed and time-critical movements require the processing of temporal features in sensory information as well as the fine-tuned temporal interplay of several effectors. Temporal estimates used to produce such behavior may thus be obtained through perceptual or motor processes. To disentangle the two options, we tested whether adaptation to a temporal perturbation in an interval reproduction task transfers to interval reproduction tasks with varying sensory information (visual appearance of targets, modality, virtual reality (VR) environment or real-world) or varying movement types (continuous arm movements or ballistic clicking movements). Halfway through the experiments we introduced a temporal perturbation, such that continuous pointing movements were artificially slowed down in VR, causing participants to adapt their behavior to sustain performance. In four experiments, we found that sensorimotor adaptation to temporal perturbations is independent of environment context and movement type, but modality specific. Our findings suggest that motor errors induced by temporal sensorimotor adaptation affect the modality specific perceptual processing of temporal estimates.New & Noteworthy Without calibration through error signals from the external world, internal sensory estimates could only be interpreted arbitrarily. In the present work, we investigated whether actions calibrate temporal estimates using an adaptation paradigm. We found that adaptation transfers between different types of movement and movement-goals, but only if the modality of the adapted task and the transfer-task was the same. Our results suggest that motor errors calibrate time upstream of motor areas, probably in sensory areas.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.