Plasticity in Human Sensorimotor Control

Abstract

Maintenance and development of sensorily guided behavior depend in part upon bodily movement in the normal environment. Ordered information entailed in the motor-sensory feedback loop is responsible for the stable functioning of the plastic systems of corrdination. From the results of experiments on vision and hearing the introduction and disorder into the motor-sensory loop changes the state of these systems and makes performance imprecise. In space, a freely moving astronaut will be exposed to a condition analogous to that of the subjects of these experiments. Consequently, he may lose his ability to perform certain tasks requiring precise sensorimotor control (26).