Prism Adaptation (PA) is a well-established sensorimotor technique employed to probe the flexibility of the visual-motor system. It has been successfully used to rehabilitate cognitive deficits following acquired brain lesions as well as to modulate intact cognition in healthy individuals. PA involves the execution of fast, one-shot, pointing movements toward visual targets while wearing prism wedges that laterally shift vision either rightward or leftward, and it produces after-effects in the direction opposite to the visual displacement. Since the first application showing that right-shifting prisms alleviate left neglect pathological behavior, a plethora of studies on brain-damaged patients as well as on healthy individuals has revealed supramodal effects on higher order cognition, such as spatial attention, time perception, auditory perception and reward-based learning. These results have prompted research aimed at
uncovering the neural correlates of both sensorimotor and higher-level after-effects, and thus the processes of generalization, transfer and expansion taking place during PA, along with the consolidation of such PA-induced after-effects.
Traditional models on PA described the neural correlates underlying this behavioral training and its sensorimotor and cognitive after-effects in terms of segregated brain regions. However, there is now growing evidence of the complexity underlying such a deceptively simple technique. Very recently, a network approach has been put forward proposing a dynamic interplay between target areas rather than their individual involvement. Moreover, previously overlooked regions, such as the motor cortex, have been found to be involved in PA after-effects consolidation, shading light on the complex network underlying PA-induced plasticity.
The goal of this Research Topic is to call for scientific contributions providing evidence on PA neural correlates and mechanisms of action
from a network approach, where the adaptive processes of sensorimotor adaptation to prims and consequent expansion to cognition arise from the thick interaction between functionally interconnected brain regions.
Studies adopting several approaches to investigate the neural mechanisms of PA are welcomed. These may include –but are not limited to- lesion studies, non-invasive brain stimulation studies
(tDCS and TMS), electrophysiological (EEG) and functional brain imaging (fMRI, PET, fNIRS) studies focusing on both healthy individuals and brain-damaged patients. Well-designed behavioral experiments and meta-analyses will also be considered, provided that they involve main focus on the brain network underlying PA or add a relevant contribution to the understanding of the neural mechanisms of PA. Considered the hierarchical organization of PA mechanism of action, studies can be focused on the brain networks responsible for either the lower-level sensorimotor processes or the higher-level ones responsible of impacting cognition as well as their consolidation
over time.
Prism Adaptation (PA) is a well-established sensorimotor technique employed to probe the flexibility of the visual-motor system. It has been successfully used to rehabilitate cognitive deficits following acquired brain lesions as well as to modulate intact cognition in healthy individuals. PA involves the execution of fast, one-shot, pointing movements toward visual targets while wearing prism wedges that laterally shift vision either rightward or leftward, and it produces after-effects in the direction opposite to the visual displacement. Since the first application showing that right-shifting prisms alleviate left neglect pathological behavior, a plethora of studies on brain-damaged patients as well as on healthy individuals has revealed supramodal effects on higher order cognition, such as spatial attention, time perception, auditory perception and reward-based learning. These results have prompted research aimed at
uncovering the neural correlates of both sensorimotor and higher-level after-effects, and thus the processes of generalization, transfer and expansion taking place during PA, along with the consolidation of such PA-induced after-effects.
Traditional models on PA described the neural correlates underlying this behavioral training and its sensorimotor and cognitive after-effects in terms of segregated brain regions. However, there is now growing evidence of the complexity underlying such a deceptively simple technique. Very recently, a network approach has been put forward proposing a dynamic interplay between target areas rather than their individual involvement. Moreover, previously overlooked regions, such as the motor cortex, have been found to be involved in PA after-effects consolidation, shading light on the complex network underlying PA-induced plasticity.
The goal of this Research Topic is to call for scientific contributions providing evidence on PA neural correlates and mechanisms of action
from a network approach, where the adaptive processes of sensorimotor adaptation to prims and consequent expansion to cognition arise from the thick interaction between functionally interconnected brain regions.
Studies adopting several approaches to investigate the neural mechanisms of PA are welcomed. These may include –but are not limited to- lesion studies, non-invasive brain stimulation studies
(tDCS and TMS), electrophysiological (EEG) and functional brain imaging (fMRI, PET, fNIRS) studies focusing on both healthy individuals and brain-damaged patients. Well-designed behavioral experiments and meta-analyses will also be considered, provided that they involve main focus on the brain network underlying PA or add a relevant contribution to the understanding of the neural mechanisms of PA. Considered the hierarchical organization of PA mechanism of action, studies can be focused on the brain networks responsible for either the lower-level sensorimotor processes or the higher-level ones responsible of impacting cognition as well as their consolidation
over time.
