Maxime Martel¹ (), Daniel M. Wolpert^2,3, Laurent Madelain^1,4; ¹Université de de Lille, CNRS, CHU Lille, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France, ²Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA, ³Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, ⁴Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR 7289, Marseille, France

Research on arm movements demonstrates that differences in motor planning - the process of organizing and sequencing movements - play a critical role in contextual motor learning. In contrast, motor execution - the physical performance of movements - does not drive the learning process. This study replicates these findings and extends them to the oculomotor system. Using a double-step paradigm, we implemented a sequence of two saccades to induce contextual adaptation. This was achieved by pairing the direction of the intra-saccadic step occurring during the first saccade with that of the second saccade. We assessed contextual saccadic adaptation across four experimental conditions (n=32): (1) planning and executing the second saccade, (2) viewing the second target cue without planning or executing the second saccade, (3) planning the second saccade without executing it (movement inhibited), and (4) executing the second saccade without prior planning (its direction was cued only after completion of the first saccade). The results revealed significant contextual saccadic adaptation in both the Planning & Execution condition and the Planning Only condition, with minimal to no adaptation observed in the other two conditions. These findings extend previous research by confirming that motor planning is a critical component of efficient contextual motor learning. We provide strong evidence that saccade planning plays a pivotal role in driving adaptation, whereas saccade execution or mere cue perception alone is insufficient.