Brudner SN, Kethidi N, Graeupner D, Ivry RB, Taylor JA. Delayed feedback during sensorimotor learning selectively disrupts adaptation but not strategy use. J Neurophysiol 115: 1499 -1511, 2016. First published January 20, 2016 doi:10.1152/jn.00066.2015.-In sensorimotor adaptation tasks, feedback delays can cause significant reductions in the rate of learning. This constraint is puzzling given that many skilled behaviors have inherently long delays (e.g., hitting a golf ball). One difference in these task domains is that adaptation is primarily driven by error-based feedback, whereas skilled performance may also rely to a large extent on outcome-based feedback. This difference suggests that error-and outcome-based feedback may engage different learning processes, and these processes may be associated with different temporal constraints. We tested this hypothesis in a visuomotor adaptation task. Error feedback was indicated by the terminal position of a cursor, while outcome feedback was indicated by points. In separate groups of participants, the two feedback signals were presented immediately at the end of the movement, after a delay, or with just the error feedback delayed. Participants learned to counter the rotation in a similar manner regardless of feedback delay. However, the aftereffect, an indicator of implicit motor adaptation, was attenuated with delayed error feedback, consistent with the hypothesis that a different learning process supports performance under delay. We tested this by employing a task that dissociates the contribution of explicit strategies and implicit adaptation. We find that explicit aiming strategies contribute to the majority of the learning curve, regardless of delay; however, implicit learning, measured over the course of learning and by aftereffects, was significantly attenuated with delayed error-based feedback. These experiments offer new insight into the temporal constraints associated with different motor learning processes.forward model; internal model; motor adaptation; motor learning; reinforcement learning LEARNING TO LINK ACTIONS with their respective outcomes is necessary for successfully interacting with the world. Feedback delays can present a significant problem in learning actionoutcome associations, yet such delays are ubiquitous in motor control. Feedback from proprioception and vision are inherently delayed because of neural transmission and integration time. Even if these delays are relatively short, the control system faces a significant problem due to potentially destabilizing effects arising from body and environmental dynamics.One prominent solution for handling delayed feedback in the sensorimotor learning literature centers on the idea of an adaptive forward model, a representation that allows the system to anticipate or predict the sensory consequences of an action through sensory-prediction errors (Wolpert and Miall 1996). However, various lines of evidence indicate that this solution is subject to severe temporal constraints. Modest additional delays ...