Movement Learning With Isometric Training Through Virtual Reality

Recently, researchers have come to develop techniques for arm movement training and rehabilitation using robotics. It would be less cumbersome and expensive to replace the robotics with a simple force sensor, and perform the same training without actual hand movement. The idea of training movements in an isometric setting is a challenging concept, which may seem radical. While one may not expect visual, virtual learning to transfer to actual movements, previous work has shown promising results. Here we expanded on this idea by further examining the amount of training that transfers between isometric and real settings as well as the after effects shown as a result of isometric training. By using a two degree of freedom, planar manipulandum applying forces in a curl force-field, we found that participants' error was significantly lower after isometric training than during initial exposure. Additionally, we found that in another group of participants, isometric learning resulted in after-effects when returned to real movements.