CORTICAL DYNAMICS IN VISUOMOTOR ADAPTATION UNDER INTERACTING ATTENTIONAL MODALITIES

Motor learning is critical for acquiring new skills. Sensorimotor and prefrontal regions modify functional connectivity during attention-demanding motor learning tasks. However, studies have examined attentional stimuli in isolation as bottom-up (BU) or top-down (TD), although both coexist in natural settings. This study aims to identify a neurophysiological mechanism explaining attentional modulation during visuomotor adaptation under the interaction between BU and TD. Healthy participants played a video game in which they controlled a spaceship with a joystick, going through four attentional conditions that combined different levels of BU and TD attentional load. In addition, a perturbation was introduced in the spaceship trajectory to induce motor adaptation. In each condition, performance and functional connectivity were assessed using the weighted phase-lag index (wPLI) and the phase slope index (PSI) in theta and beta bands. Preliminary results in 5 participants show learning in all conditions, but its magnitude differed (p < 0.01), being greater with higher BU load. Although models show no significant connectivity effects on behavior, they suggest reduced network dependence with learning, where higher wPLI tends to relate to less learning, especially in later phases, while PSI indicates decreasing prefrontal contribution over time in theta and beta. These findings are consistent with a transition from an initial phase of higher attentional demand and functional coordination toward a more automatized phase, where the weight of prefrontal control decreases and where conditions with higher BU load seem to be more relevant. Nonetheless, these conclusions should be considered preliminary due to the still-limited sample size.