title: On the relationship between human sensorimotor adaptability and event-related potentials.
abstract: It was explored if the speed with which an individual learns to deal with new environments and challenges can be predicted on the basis of his/her brain's response to irrelevant (repeating) and novel auditory stimuli. In this study, 26 subjects threw 30 light-weight balls at a target with and without vision-distorting goggles. The horizontal displacement from a bull's-eye target was measured and the rate and degree of adaptation were computed. The adaptation parameters were correlated with evoked and event-related potential (EP/ERP) measures of the subject's ability to suppress irrelevant information and respond to novel stimuli. Only a weak (or a trend to) correlation was found between the behavioral adaptation and some of the EP/ERP measures. The correlations were limited to EP parameters in the 100 to 200 ms post-stimulus range reflecting the ability to suppress irrelevant information. Thus we conclude that the speed with which an individual adapts to a new environment is at best weakly correlated with brain activity associated with stimulus memory and classification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, TX 77204-4005, USA. tramhongdinh@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Tram Hong
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Dinh
authors.forename: Ben H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*