Factors Affecting Sensory and Motor Learning

NCT ID: NCT05374460

Last Updated: 2025-08-26

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 300 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-04-29
• Study Completion Date: 2027-04-30

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.

Conditions

Basic Science

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Conscious awareness: No information

Told nothing about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch. Hand remains hidden beneath mirror that shows visual display. (control)

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Attend to the targets

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will not be told anything about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch. Instead, they will be asked simply to attend to the target positions.

Conscious awareness: Explanatory diagram

Told in advance about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch, which will be explained with a diagram. Hand remains hidden.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Explanatory diagram

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participant is told there will be a mismatch between their target finger and the visual indicator of target finger position. They will be shown a diagram explaining this.

Conscious awareness: Direct vision of hand

Foamboard under mirror removed, making the mirror see-through and the hand directly visible.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Direct vision

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Foamboard under mirror removed, making the mirror see-through and the hand directly visible. Mismatch between target hand and visual indicator will be directly visible.

Movement feedback: No feedback

No movement feedback (control)

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

No movement feedback

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The visual indicator of the target hand will be displaced, but there will be no cursor to indicate the pointing hand's position.

Movement feedback: Target hand

Movement feedback about the target hand.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Movement feedback, target hand

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

After the participant points at each target, a cursor indicating final pointing position will be displayed briefly. The visual indicator of the target hand will be displaced.

Movement feedback: Pointing hand

Movement feedback about the pointing hand.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Movement feedback, pointing hand

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

After the participant points at each target, a cursor indicating final pointing position will be displayed briefly. The visual indicator of the target hand will not change, but the cursor indicating pointing hand position will change.

Interventions

Explanatory diagram

Participant is told there will be a mismatch between their target finger and the visual indicator of target finger position. They will be shown a diagram explaining this.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Direct vision

Foamboard under mirror removed, making the mirror see-through and the hand directly visible. Mismatch between target hand and visual indicator will be directly visible.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Movement feedback, target hand

After the participant points at each target, a cursor indicating final pointing position will be displayed briefly. The visual indicator of the target hand will be displaced.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Movement feedback, pointing hand

After the participant points at each target, a cursor indicating final pointing position will be displayed briefly. The visual indicator of the target hand will not change, but the cursor indicating pointing hand position will change.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

No movement feedback

The visual indicator of the target hand will be displaced, but there will be no cursor to indicate the pointing hand's position.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Attend to the targets

Participants will not be told anything about the visuo-proprioceptive mismatch. Instead, they will be asked simply to attend to the target positions.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 45 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Indiana University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Hannah Justine Block

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Hannah J Block

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Indiana University, Bloomington

Locations

Hannah Block

Bloomington, Indiana, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Hannah J Block, PhD

Role: CONTACT

hjblock@indiana.edu

8128555390

Facility Contacts

Hannah Block, PhD

Role: primary

hjblock@indiana.edu

8128555390

Other Identifiers

R01NS112367-01A1

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

14804

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id