Unconscious updating of grasp motor program

Grasp modification during prehension movements was studied in response to slight variations of somesthetic information about object size. Three experiments were carried out. In experiment 1 eight subjects were required to reach and grasp an object whose size could either increase or decrease, whereas its visual image remained unmodified. The object size was changed during the experiment with uninformed subjects after a block of trials during which visual and somesthetic information were congruent. At the end of the experiment subjects were required to reproduce the size of the object with their fingers (matching test). Results showed that maximal grip aperture during prehension as well as finger aperture in the matching test were modified according to variation in object size, although no subject realized that the object had changed during the experiment. Grasp time was also altered by object size change. Greater and earlier adaptation in maximal grip aperture, as well as perturbation of grasp time, were observed for decrease than for increase in object size. However, complete compensation was never reached for both parameters. Constant confidence in vision could have prevented both complete compensation and conscious detection of object change. This was investigated in two additional experiments. In experiment 2 visual information was made unreliable by informing subjects about variation in grasped object size. This led to greater and earlier modification in maximal grip aperture than in experiment 1. Grasp time was kept almost constant regardless of size variation. In experiment 3 vision of the stimulus was prevented and no information on change in object size was given to subjects. The results of experiment 3 were similar to those of experiment 1, although modification in maximal grip aperture was larger for increase in object size. Correspondingly, grasp time was more affected by increase than by decrease in object size. The results of the three experiments suggest that kinematic parameters usually considered as dependent on object properties, such as maximal grip aperture, were modified in order to compensate perturbation of temporal parameters. This modification induced a "pragmatic" knowledge of object size (as showed by the results of the matching test), although awareness was not reached.