Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability

Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability Minxin Cheng, Danyang Han, Maryam Haq, Ori Ossmy This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract A remarkable aspect of human behaviour is the ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment. This behavioral adaptability—a hallmark of intelligence—is critical for survival and everyday function. However, the question remains open as to how the sensorimotor ability to adapt to physical environments is linked to cognitive ability to modify internal mental representations. Here, we used altered gravity to address this question. Twenty-five participants completed a virtual-reality task that required them to adapt their movements to non-terrestrial gravities and a computerised task in which they had to reason about physical outcomes under varied gravitational conditions. Participants' performance in these tasks was compared against their performance under normal terrestrial gravity to measure adaptability. Our findings reveal stable individual differences in adaptability across both sensorimotor and cognitive domains, with significant correlations between the two. Participants who adeptly adjusted their motor actions to the altered gravitational forces also demonstrated a superior ability to adapt their cognitive strategies under similar conditions. Our findings support the theory of embodied cognition, suggesting a profound linkage between physical interaction with the environment and cognitive processing capabilities. The study raises the possibility that sensorimotor adaptation may enhance abstract reasoning capabilities, or vice versa. Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Psychology Physical Cognition Reasoning Embodiment Virtual Reality Gravity Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files AdaptabilityToGravitiesSupplementaryMaterials.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4412271","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":308784230,"identity":"d9ad8a98-b4b6-4f23-8be6-3cf94fa0692b","order_by":0,"name":"Minxin Cheng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northeastern University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Minxin","middleName":"","lastName":"Cheng","suffix":""},{"id":308784231,"identity":"6feade97-15c7-4b1b-9b03-fbd40adc845e","order_by":1,"name":"Danyang Han","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Danyang","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":308784232,"identity":"7cb7f616-d37d-4c07-9d36-287fd2a0aa88","order_by":2,"name":"Maryam Haq","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Birkbeck, University of London","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maryam","middleName":"","lastName":"Haq","suffix":""},{"id":308784235,"identity":"8cd7c419-188b-41da-9348-876005e92138","order_by":3,"name":"Ori Ossmy","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA00lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACxgYIzd7DBmWyEauF5wzRWmBAIodILfzShxsYPvypiza4+fbYwxkMdvIMEmkJeLVI9iU2MM5sO5y74XZeuuEGhmTDBom0A3i1GJxhbGDmbTgA1JJjJvmAgTmBQSK9gbAWnj91uRtungFpqSdWCxtz7oYbPGaSGxgOA7UQcJhkD2PDQZBfZp4B+mWGwXHDNp5nCXi18POwP3wADLHcvuNnjz3sqaiW52dPM8CrBQTA7lAAkwYkRCSDfAPRSkfBKBgFo2CkAQADB0aulylcJwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Birkbeck, University of London","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ori","middleName":"","lastName":"Ossmy","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-13 09:38:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":59629372,"identity":"d15aabd7-37b4-49d3-a5fd-486b8f64c39c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-04 04:49:17","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":679554,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AdaptabilityToGravitiesManuscript20240520corrected.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4412271/v1_covered_de0d2106-67eb-4772-b8f5-b13546d1f1aa.pdf"},{"id":57461859,"identity":"d8dc7c10-3a32-4f5b-9450-df4e643b4dec","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-31 03:29:04","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":389122,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AdaptabilityToGravitiesSupplementaryMaterials.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4412271/v1/e402407b9a6da643cd779987.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Physical Cognition, Reasoning, Embodiment, Virtual Reality, Gravity","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"A remarkable aspect of human behaviour is the ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment. This behavioral adaptability—a hallmark of intelligence—is critical for survival and everyday function. However, the question remains open as to how the sensorimotor ability to adapt to physical environments is linked to cognitive ability to modify internal mental representations. Here, we used altered gravity to address this question. Twenty-five participants completed a virtual-reality task that required them to adapt their movements to non-terrestrial gravities and a computerised task in which they had to reason about physical outcomes under varied gravitational conditions. Participants' performance in these tasks was compared against their performance under normal terrestrial gravity to measure adaptability. Our findings reveal stable individual differences in adaptability across both sensorimotor and cognitive domains, with significant correlations between the two. Participants who adeptly adjusted their motor actions to the altered gravitational forces also demonstrated a superior ability to adapt their cognitive strategies under similar conditions. Our findings support the theory of embodied cognition, suggesting a profound linkage between physical interaction with the environment and cognitive processing capabilities. The study raises the possibility that sensorimotor adaptation may enhance abstract reasoning capabilities, or vice versa.","manuscriptTitle":"Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-05-31 03:29:00","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4412271/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"4a84e4ac-aa4a-4320-8bfd-791e32595942","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 31st, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":32624115,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":32624116,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-07-04T04:41:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-05-31 03:29:00","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4412271","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4412271","identity":"rs-4412271","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}