Motor adaptation to Coriolis force perturbations of reaching movements: endpoint but not trajectory adaptation transfers to the nonexposed arm

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 1787-1792 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Dizio ◽  
J. R. Lackner

1. Reaching movements made in a rotating room generate Coriolis forces that are directly proportional to the cross product of the room's angular velocity and the arm's linear velocity. Such Coriolis forces are inertial forces not involving mechanical contact with the arm. 2. We measured the trajectories of arm movements made in darkness to a visual target that was extinguished at the onset of each reach. Prerotation subjects pointed with both the right and left arms in alternating sets of eight movements. During rotation at 10 rpm, the subjects reached only with the right arm. Postrotation, the subjects pointed with the left and right arms, starting with the left, in alternating sets of eight movements. 3. The initial perrotary reaching movements of the right arm were highly deviated both in movement path and endpoint relative to the prerotation reaches of the right arm. With additional movements, subjects rapidly regained straight movement paths and accurate endpoints despite the absence of visual or tactile feedback about reaching accuracy. The initial postrotation reaches of the left arm followed straight paths to the wrong endpoint. The initial postrotation reaches of the right arm had paths with mirror image curvature to the initial perrotation reaches of the right arm but went to the correct endpoint. 4. These observations are inconsistent with current equilibrium point models of movement control. Such theories predict accurate reaches under our experimental conditions. Our observations further show independent implementation of movement and posture, as evidenced by transfer of endpoint adaptation to the nonexposed arm without transfer of path adaptation. Endpoint control may occur at a relatively central stage that represents general constraints such as gravitoinertial force background or egocentric direction relative to both arms, and control of path may occur at a more peripheral stage that represents moments of inertia and muscle dynamics unique to each limb. 5. Endpoint and path adaptation occur despite the absence both of mechanical contact cues about the perturbing force and visual or tactile cues about movement accuracy. These findings point to the importance of muscle spindle signals, monitoring of motor commands, and possibly joint and tendon receptors in a detailed trajectory monitoring process. Muscle spindle primary and secondary afferent signals may differentially influence adaptation of movement shape and endpoint, respectively.

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Lackner ◽  
P. Dizio

1. Forward reaching movements made during body rotation generate tangential Coriolis forces that are proportional to the cross product of the angular velocity of rotation and the linear velocity of the arm. Coriolis forces are inertial forces that do not involve mechanical contact. Virtually no constant centrifugal forces will be present in the background when motion of the arm generates transient Coriolis forces if the radius of body rotation is small. 2. We measured the trajectories of arm movements made in darkness to a visual target that was extinguished as movement began. The reaching movements were made prerotation, during rotation at 10 rpm in a fully enclosed rotating room, and postrotation. During testing the subject was seated at the center of the room and pointed radially. Neither visual nor tactile feedback about movement accuracy was present. 3. In experiment 1, subjects reached at a fast or slow rate and their hands made contact with a horizontal surface at the end of the reach. Their initial perrotary movements were highly significantly deviated relative to prerotation in both trajectories and end-points in the direction of the transient Coriolis forces that had been generated during the reaches. Despite the absence of visual and tactile feedback about reaching accuracy, all subjects rapidly regained straight movement trajectories and accurate endpoints. Postrotation, transient errors of opposite sign were present for both trajectories and endpoints. 4. In a second experiment the conditions were identical except that subjects pointed just above the location of the extinguished target so that no surface contact was involved. All subjects showed significant initial perrotation deviations of trajectories and endpoints in the direction of the transient Coriolis forces. With repeated reaches the trajectories, as viewed from above, again became straight, but there was only partial restoration of endpoint accuracy, so that subjects reached in a straight line to the wrong place. Aftereffects of opposite sign were transiently present in the postrotary movements. 5. These observations fail to support current equilibrium point models, both alpha and lambda, of movement control. Such theories would not predict endpoint errors under our experimental conditions, in which the Coriolis force is absent at the beginning and end of a movement. Our results indicate that detailed aspects of movement trajectory are being continuously monitored on the basis of proprioceptive feedback in relation to motor commands. Adaptive compensations can be initiated after one perturbation despite the absence of either visual or tactile feedback about movement trajectory and endpoint error. Moreover, movement trajectory and end-point can be remapped independently.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-310
Author(s):  
James R. Lackner ◽  
Paul DiZio

The reafference model has frequently been used to explain spatial constancy during eye and head movements. We have found that its basic concepts also form part of the information processing necessary for the control and recalibration of reaching movements. Reaching was studied in a novel force environment–a rotating room that creates centripetal forces of the type that could someday substitute for gravity in space flight, and Coriolis forces which are side effects of rotation. We found that inertial, noncontacting Coriolis forces deviate the path and endpoint of reaching movements, a finding that shows the inadequacy of equilibrium position models of movement control. Repeated movements in the rotating room quickly lead to normal movement patterns and to a failure to perceive the perturbing forces. The first movements made after rotation stops, without Coriolis forces present, show mirror-image deviations and evoke perception of a perturbing force even though none is present. These patterns of sensorimotor control and adaptation can largely be explained on the basis of comparisons of efference copy, reafferent muscle spindle, and cutaneous mechanoreceptor signals. We also describe experiments on human iocomotion using an apparatus similar to that which Mittelstaedt used to study the optomotor response of the Eristalis fly. These results show that the reafference principle relates as well to the perception of the forces acting on and exerted by the body during voluntary locomotion.


2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 3230-3240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph V. Cohn ◽  
Paul DiZio ◽  
James R. Lackner

Subjects who are in an enclosed chamber rotating at constant velocity feel physically stationary but make errors when pointing to targets. Reaching paths and endpoints are deviated in the direction of the transient inertial Coriolis forces generated by their arm movements. By contrast, reaching movements made during natural, voluntary torso rotation seem to be accurate, and subjects are unaware of the Coriolis forces generated by their movements. This pattern suggests that the motor plan for reaching movements uses a representation of body motion to prepare compensations for impending self-generated accelerative loads on the arm. If so, stationary subjects who are experiencing illusory self-rotation should make reaching errors when pointing to a target. These errors should be in the direction opposite the Coriolis accelerations their arm movements would generate if they were actually rotating. To determine whether such compensations exist, we had subjects in four experiments make visually open-loop reaches to targets while they were experiencing compelling illusory self-rotation and displacement induced by rotation of a complex, natural visual scene. The paths and endpoints of their initial reaching movements were significantly displaced leftward during counterclockwise illusory rotary displacement and rightward during clockwise illusory self-displacement. Subjects reached in a curvilinear path to the wrong place. These reaching errors were opposite in direction to the Coriolis forces that would have been generated by their arm movements during actual torso rotation. The magnitude of path curvature and endpoint errors increased as the speed of illusory self-rotation increased. In successive reaches, movement paths became straighter and endpoints more accurate despite the absence of visual error feedback or tactile feedback about target location. When subjects were again presented a stationary scene, their initial reaches were indistinguishable from pre-exposure baseline, indicating a total absence of aftereffects. These experiments demonstrate that the nervous system automatically compensates in a context-specific fashion for the Coriolis forces associated with reaching movements.


1975 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 527-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Nakamura ◽  
R. Taniguchi ◽  
Y. Oshima

Using 7 left- and 7 right-handed subjects, the difference in time between left and right arms in the initiation of bilateral simultaneous flexion of elbows (synchronization error) was measured under three conditions: response to a sound stimulus with a warning signal, response to a sound stimulus without a warning signal, and self-initiated trial (option). The absolute value of synchronization errors depended upon experimental conditions. In conditions ‘with warning’ and ‘option’ the dominance shown in performance of left-handed subjects was the mirror-image of that shown by the right-handed subjects. The right biceps muscle responded faster in left-handed subjects and vice versa. Right-handed subjects showed rather a constant value in their dispersion of synchronization errors.


1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 546-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Lackner ◽  
Paul Dizio

Lackner, James R. and Paul DiZio. Gravitoinertial force background level affects adaptation to Coriolis force perturbations of reaching movements. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 546–553, 1998. We evaluated the combined effects on reaching movements of the transient, movement-dependent Coriolis forces and the static centrifugal forces generated in a rotating environment. Specifically, we assessed the effects of comparable Coriolis force perturbations in different static force backgrounds. Two groups of subjects made reaching movements toward a just-extinguished visual target before rotation began, during 10 rpm counterclockwise rotation, and after rotation ceased. One group was seated on the axis of rotation, the other 2.23 m away. The resultant of gravity and centrifugal force on the hand was 1.0 g for the on-center group during 10 rpm rotation, and 1.031 g for the off-center group because of the 0.25 g centrifugal force present. For both groups, rightward Coriolis forces, ≈0.2 g peak, were generated during voluntary arm movements. The endpoints and paths of the initial per-rotation movements were deviated rightward for both groups by comparable amounts. Within 10 subsequent reaches, the on-center group regained baseline accuracy and straight-line paths; however, even after 40 movements the off-center group had not resumed baseline endpoint accuracy. Mirror-image aftereffects occurred when rotation stopped. These findings demonstrate that manual control is disrupted by transient Coriolis force perturbations and that adaptation can occur even in the absence of visual feedback. An increase, even a small one, in background force level above normal gravity does not affect the size of the reaching errors induced by Coriolis forces nor does it affect the rate of reacquiring straight reaching paths; however, it does hinder restoration of reaching accuracy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 2175-2180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul DiZio ◽  
James R. Lackner

Reaching movements made to visual targets in a rotating room are initially deviated in path and endpoint in the direction of transient Coriolis forces generated by the motion of the arm relative to the rotating environment. With additional reaches, movements become progressively straighter and more accurate. Such adaptation can occur even in the absence of visual feedback about movement progression or terminus. Here we examined whether congenitally blind and sighted subjects without visual feedback would demonstrate adaptation to Coriolis forces when they pointed to a haptically specified target location. Subjects were tested pre-, per-, and postrotation at 10 rpm counterclockwise. Reaching to straight ahead targets prerotation, both groups exhibited slightly curved paths. Per-rotation, both groups showed large initial deviations of movement path and curvature but within 12 reaches on average had returned to prerotation curvature levels and endpoints. Postrotation, both groups showed mirror image patterns of curvature and endpoint to the per-rotation pattern. The groups did not differ significantly on any of the performance measures. These results provide compelling evidence that motor adaptation to Coriolis perturbations can be achieved on the basis of proprioceptive, somatosensory, and motor information in the complete absence of visual experience.


Development ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-637
Author(s):  
Alfredo Castro-Quezada ◽  
Bernardo Nadal-Ginard ◽  
María V. de la Cruz

The formation of the normal bulboventricular loop (convex to the right) and the inverted loop (convex to the left) produced by the Lepori technique in chick embryos was studied. The development of the loops was recorded by means of diagrams, photographs and microscopic time-lapse photography. Electron-microscope studies were also made. The normal loop was studied by means of labelling and removal experiments on the heart tube. The results demonstrated that the fusion of both cardiac primordia is made in stage 9 — in the mid-line of the embryo and that the first asymmetry of the heart tube appears in stage 10. The truncus region developed in situ directed towards the right after the fusion of both cardiac primordia, and in this region the electron-microscope study demonstrated a gradient of caudo-cephalic differentiation. In stage 10 the left caudal groove is the prospective interventricular groove, but the right caudal groove is not the right atrioventricular groove as had been stated by others. The asymmetric incorporation of both primordia begins in stage 11 —, when the curvature of the loop is already developing. In the removal experiments it was evident that the different portions of the cardiac tube in situ are orientated in space independently of the whole of the loop. The formation of the experimentally inverted loop is a mirror-image of the normal loop and appears to be originated through mechanic traction of the cardiac tube by the left splachnopleure and not by a faster displacement of the right cardiac primordia.


1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 234-244
Author(s):  
Uwe Niederberger ◽  
Wolf-Dieter Gerber

Abstract In two experiments with four and two groups of healthy subjects, a novel motor task, the voluntary abduction of the right big toe, was trained. This task cannot usually be performed without training and is therefore ideal for the study of elementary motor learning. A systematic variation of proprioceptive, tactile, visual, and EMG feedback was used. In addition to peripheral measurements such as the voluntary range of motion and EMG output during training, a three-channel EEG was recorded over Cz, C3, and C4. The movement-related brain potential during distinct periods of the training was analyzed as a central nervous parameter of the ongoing learning process. In experiment I, we randomized four groups of 12 subjects each (group P: proprioceptive feedback; group PT: proprioceptive and tactile feedback; group PTV: proprioceptive, tactile, and visual feedback; group PTEMG: proprioceptive, tactile, and EMG feedback). Best training results were reported from the PTEMG and PTV groups. The movement-preceding cortical activity, in the form of the amplitude of the readiness potential at the time of EMG onset, was greatest in these two groups. Results of experiment II revealed a similar effect, with a greater training success and a higher electrocortical activation under additional EMG feedback compared to proprioceptive feedback alone. Sensory EMG feedback as evaluated by peripheral and central nervous measurements appears to be useful in motor training and neuromuscular re-education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-201
Author(s):  
Tudor-Vlad Sfârlog

Abstract The present study offers the doctrine of the right of intellectual creation new perspectives on the study of the institution of termination of the assignment contract for the patrimonial rights resulting from the intellectual creation. We believe that the present study is rich in doctrinal contributions, formulating new theses and opening the prospect for new perspectives of scientific research. Last but not least, we appreciate that the proposals made in the present study contribute not only to the activity of opinionated in the field, but also to the work of practitioners and direct beneficiaries of the legal provisions on the assignment of patrimonial rights of authors.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth Schechter

This chapter defends the 2-agents claim, according to which the two hemispheres of a split-brain subject are associated with distinct intentional agents. The empirical basis of this claim is that, while both hemispheres are the source or site of intentions, the capacity to integrate them in practical reasoning no longer operates interhemispherically after split-brain surgery. As a result, the right hemisphere-associated agent, R, and the left hemisphere-associated agent, L, enjoy intentional autonomy from each other. Although the positive case for the 2-agents claim is grounded mainly in experimental findings, the claim is not contradicted by what we know of split-brain subjects’ ordinary behavior, that is, the way they act outside of experimental conditions.


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