Mice Use Prediction Errors to Adapt to Visuomotor Perturbations in Virtual Reality
Motor adaptation allows organisms to adjust their movements in response to environmental changes, ensuring the successful execution of actions. While detailed behavioral studies in humans have inferred mechanisms underlying motor adaptationâ such as the role of internal models and sensory prediction errorsâ the neural substrates involved remain poorly understood due to limitations in directly studying these processes in humans. To address this challenge, we developed a novel visuomotor adaptation paradigm in mice using a virtual reality environment that simulates dynamic and immersive settings. Here, we show that mice adapt to visuomotor perturbations primarily through sensory prediction errors and that cortical pathways may contribute to this adaptation. Mice were trained to navigate a virtual track with dynamically changing visual feedback, where visuomotor perturbations altered the relationship between their physical movements and the visual scene. Initially, mice exhibited increased endpoint errors, which decreased as they adapted, while maintaining high reward rates, reflecting continuous updating of their internal models governing visuomotor integration. Optogenetic inhibition of the primary visual cortex (V1) during perturbation trials impaired motor adaptation, evidenced by reduced reward rates and increased end-point errors, indicating V1's significant role in implicit adaptation. However, some mice continued to adapt despite V1 inhibition, suggesting compensatory mechanisms involving other brain regions. Additionally, when exposed to large, fixed visuomotor perturbations, mice demonstrated explicit adaptation driven by reward, highlighting distinct learning strategies based on the type of error signal. These findings advance our ability to study the neural mechanisms underlying visuomotor adaptation by establishing mice as a powerful model system for motor adaptation. Understanding the interplay between sensory and reward prediction errors in motor adaptation has significant implications for developing rehabilitation strategies for motor disorders.
professeure Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez (présidente) ; Prof. Mackenzie Mathis (directeur de thèse) ; Prof. Carl Petersen, Prof. Georg Keller, Prof. Samuel McDougle (rapporteurs)
2025
Lausanne
2025-01-14
10931
168