Visual Selection of the Future Reach Path in Obstacle Avoidance

In two EEG experiments, we studied the role of visual attention during the preparation of manual movements around an obstacle. Participants performed rapid hand movements to a goal position avoiding a central obstacle either on the left or right side, depending on the pitch of the acoustical go signal. We used a dot probe paradigm to analyze the deployment of spatial attention in the visual field during the motor preparation. Briefly after the go signal but still before the hand movement actually started, a visual transient was flashed either on the planned pathway of the hand (congruent trials) or on the opposite, movement-irrelevant side (incongruent trials). The P1/N1 components that were evoked by the onset of the dot probe were enhanced in congruent trials where the visual transient was presented on the planned path of the hand. The results indicate that, during movement preparation, attention is allocated selectively to the planned trajectory the hand is going to take around the obstacle.

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The Role of Hand Movement in Spatial Serial Order Memory

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-20191350 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 313-335

Author(s):

Yangke Zhao ◽

Chuansheng Chen ◽

Xiuying Qian

Keyword(s):

Hand Movement ◽

Serial Order ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Facilitation Effect ◽

Serial Memory ◽

Backward Recall ◽

Passive Viewing ◽

Memory Experiment ◽

Serial Order Memory

Abstract Research on serial order memory has traditionally used tasks where participants passively view the items. A few studies that included hand movement showed that such movement interfered with serial order memory. In the present study of three experiments, we investigated whether and how hand movements improved spatial serial order memory. Experiment 1 showed that manual tracing (i.e., hand movements that traced the presentation of stimuli on the modified eCorsi block tapping task) improved the performance of backward recall as compared to no manual tracing (the control condition). Experiment 2 showed that the facilitation effect resulted from voluntary hand movements and could not be achieved via passive viewing of another person’s manual tracing. Experiment 3 showed that it was the temporal, not the spatial, signal within manual tracing that facilitated spatial serial memory.

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Posterior and Anterior Contribution of Hand-Movement Preparation to Late CNV

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027//0269-8803.14.2.69 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 69-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Rolf Verleger ◽

Bernd Wauschkuhn ◽

Rob van der Lubbe ◽

Piotr Jaśkowski ◽

Peter Trillenberg

Keyword(s):

Contingent Negative Variation ◽

Motor System ◽

Hand Movement ◽

Motor Preparation ◽

Movement Preparation ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Key Press ◽

Effector System ◽

Hand Motor Area ◽

Late Part

Abstract The late part of the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) is assumed to be a composite potential, reflecting both movement preparation and several other processes. To assess the contribution of hand-motor preparation to overall CNV, three S1-S2 experiments were performed. Replicating earlier results that have been interpreted as demonstrating hand-motor preparation, experiment 1 showed that CNV gets larger centro-parietally under speed instruction. Experiments 2 and 3 compared preparation for hand responses (key-press) to preparation for ocular responses (saccades) varying the effector system either between blocks (exp. 2) or between trials (exp. 3) and also comparing these preparation situations to no preparation (exp. 3). Hand-motor preparation was reflected in CNV getting larger fronto-centrally, with this topography being significantly different from the effect in experiment 1. Thus, two different kinds of motor preparation appear to be reflected by CNV. One kind may consist of assembling and maintaining the stimulus-response links appropriate to the expected S2 patterns, the other is for activating the hand-motor area. These two motor contributions to CNV might reflect the two aspects of the parieto-frontal motor system.

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Saccade-Related Potentials During Eye-Hand Coordination: Effects of Hand Movements on Saccade Preparation

Motor Control ◽

10.1123/mc.2015-0018 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 316-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Uta Sailer ◽

Florian Güldenpfennig ◽

Thomas Eggert

Keyword(s):

Visual Target ◽

Hand Movement ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Movement Preparation ◽

Independent Direction ◽

Preparatory Activity ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Hand Coordination ◽

Saccade Preparation

This study investigated the effect of hand movements on behavioral and electro-physiological parameters of saccade preparation. While event-related potentials were recorded in 17 subjects, they performed saccades to a visual target either together with a hand movement in the same direction, a hand movement in the opposite direction, a hand movement to a third, independent direction, or without any accompanying hand movements. Saccade latencies increased with any kind of accompanying hand movement. Both saccade and manual latencies were largest when both movements aimed at opposite directions. In contrast, saccade-related potentials indicating preparatory activity were mainly affected by hand movements in the same direction. The data suggest that concomitant hand movements interfere with saccade preparation, particularly when the two movements involve motor preparations that access the same visual stimulus. This indicates that saccade preparation is continually informed about hand movement preparation.

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Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) in Action: Assessing Premotor Attention in Simultaneous Eye-Hand Movements

10.1101/2020.01.08.898932 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Philipp Kreyenmeier ◽

Heiner Deubel ◽

Nina M. Hanning

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Target Selection ◽

Hand Movement ◽

Attentional Resource ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Voluntary Attention ◽

Processing Resources ◽

Selection Mechanisms ◽

Target Locations ◽

Attention Shifts

AbstractAttention shifts that precede goal-directed eye and hand movements are regarded as markers of motor target selection. Whether effectors compete for a single, shared attentional resource during simultaneous eye-hand movements or whether attentional resources can be allocated independently towards multiple target locations is controversially debated. Independent, effector-specific target selection mechanisms underlying parallel allocation of visuospatial attention to saccade and reach targets would predict an increase of the overall attention capacity with the number of active effectors. We test this hypothesis in a modified Theory of Visual Attention (TVA; Bundesen, 1990) paradigm. Participants reported briefly presented letters during eye, hand, or combined eye-hand movement preparation to centrally cued locations. Modeling the data according to TVA allowed us to assess both the overall attention capacity and the deployment of visual attention to individual locations in the visual work space. In two experiments, we show that attention is predominantly allocated to the motor targets – without pronounced competition between effectors. The parallel benefits at eye and hand targets, however, have concomitant costs at non-motor locations, and the overall attention capacity does not increase by the simultaneous recruitment of both effector systems. Moreover, premotor shifts of attention dominate over voluntary deployment of processing resources, yielding severe impairments of voluntary attention allocation. We conclude that attention shifts to multiple effector targets without mutual competition given that sufficient processing resources can be withdrawn from movement-irrelevant locations.

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Attentional Selection of Multiple Goal Positions Before Rapid Hand Movement Sequences: An Event-related Potential Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.21021 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 18-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Daniel Baldauf ◽

Heiner Deubel

Keyword(s):

Hand Movement ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Manual Pointing ◽

Movement Sequences ◽

The Third ◽

Movement Sequence ◽

Pointing Movements ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Selection Of

A dot-probe paradigm was used to provide physiological evidence for the parallel selection of multiple movement goals before rapid hand movement sequences. Participants executed a sequence of manual pointing movements to two out of three possible goal positions. During movement preparation, a task-irrelevant visual transient (a dot probe) was flashed either at one of both movement goals, or at the third, movement-irrelevant location. The results revealed that the N1 component induced by the presentation of the dot was enhanced if the dot was flashed at one of the movement goals, indicating that both target positions were attended before the initialization of the movement sequence. A second experiment showed that movement-irrelevant locations between the movement goals were not attended, suggesting that attention splits into spatially distinct foci.

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The goal is not special: Electrophysiological evidence for the simultaneous selection of goal and effector location during motor preparation

Seeing and Perceiving ◽

10.1163/187847612x647612 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 25 (0) ◽

pp. 128-129

Author(s):

Luke Mason ◽

Jose van Velzen

Keyword(s):

Visual Processing ◽

Action Planning ◽

Motor Preparation ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Perceptual Processing ◽

Action Goal ◽

Annular Array ◽

Visual Probe ◽

Manual Movements ◽

Selection Of

The Premotor Theory of Attention (Rizzolatti et al., 1987, 1994) predicts that the intention to carry out an action will cause enhanced perceptual processing at the location of the action goal. This enhancement is often interpreted as a shift of spatial attention and is presumed to serve the purpose of selecting one goal amongst many distracters towards which to plan an action (selection-for-action, Allport, 1987 and Neumann, 1987). Early research on the premotor effect focused on the planning of saccades, whilst more recent work has extended the principle of enhanced processing at the goal to uni-manual movements such as reaching, pointing and grasping. Unlike saccades, however, successful planning of such uni-manual movements implies selection of an effector as well as a goal. We investigated this effect by recording participants’ EEG whilst cueing them to point to one of six targets arranged in an annular array. Visual processing was measured by reference to the size of the posterior N1 event related potential, elicited in response to task-irrelevant visual ‘probe’ stimuli presented at one of the six locations in the interval between the presentation of an auditory cue and the execution of the movement. Results showed enhanced perceptual processing simultaneously at the location of the effector and at the location of the action goal. We conclude that action planning leads to a pattern of facilitation and inhibition in perception, which achieves the selection of all action relevant locations, not just that of the goal.

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Crosstalk Between Proximal and Distal Action Effects During Tool Use

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000085 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 220 (1) ◽

pp. 10-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Stefan Ladwig ◽

Christine Sutter ◽

Jochen Müsseler

Keyword(s):

Visual Feedback ◽

Closed Loop ◽

Hand Movement ◽

Tactile Feedback ◽

The Other ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Action Effects ◽

Transformation Experiment ◽

Feature Overlap

When using a tool, proximal action effects (e.g., the hand movement on a digitizer tablet) and distal action effects (e.g., the cursor movement on a display) often do not correspond to or are even in conflict with each other. In the experiments reported here, we examined the role of proximal and distal action effects in a closed loop task of sensorimotor control. Different gain factors perturbed the relation between hand movements on the digitizer tablet and cursor movements on a display. In the experiments, the covert hand movement was held constant, while the cursor amplitude on the display was shorter, equal, or longer, and vice versa in the other condition. When participants were asked to replicate the hand movement without visual feedback, hand amplitudes varied in accordance with the displayed amplitudes. Adding a second transformation (Experiment 1: 90°-rotation of visual feedback, Experiment 2: 180°-rotation of visual feedback) reduced these aftereffects only when the discrepancy between hand movement and displayed movement was obvious. In conclusion, distal action effects assimilated proximal action effects when the proprioceptive/tactile feedback showed a feature overlap with the visual feedback on the display.

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