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Temporal perturbations cause movement-context independent but modality specific sensorimotor adaptation
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Description: Complex movements require the fine-tuned temporal interplay of several effectors. If the temporal properties of one of these effectors were distorted, all other movement plans would need to be recalibrated in order to produce successful and well-timed behavior. Here, we tested whether time-critical and goal-oriented movements are affected more globally by adapting to a temporal perturbation compared to the beknown direction, movement type and context specificity of spatial adaptation. In a ready-set-go paradigm, participants reproduced the interval between ready- and set-signals by performing different arm and hand movements in Virtual Reality (VR). Halfway through the experiments we introduced a temporal perturbation, such that movements in VR were artificially slowed down. Participants had to adapt their behavior (i.e., speed up their movements) to sustain performance. In four experiments, we found that adaptation effects were not affected by, but transferred to different movement types, interval ranges, target locations, and environmental contexts. Adaptation effects did not transfer if the modality (visual vs. auditory) switched between adaptation and test trials. Thus, unlike recalibrating to spatial perturbations, the temporal planning of motor actions is recalibrated globally within the motor system, but separately for different modalities, allowing smooth coordination of behavior in time.