The influence of saccades in shaping curved hand movement trajectory
Eye and hand movements are often made in isolation but for reaching movements they are usually coupled together. While previous studies have demonstrated aspects of both kinematic and spatial coupling between eye and hand, few studies have investigated the influence of saccades on shaping a more complex curved hand movement trajectory profile. Here, using a novel obstacle avoidance task where the obstacle appeared in an infrequent number of trials, we try to establish the link between the saccade and hand trajectory. In the first part of the paper, we illustrate that the hand trajectory direction is influenced by the end location of the saccade, despite little temporal coupling between the two effectors. The x-position of the saccade end-point was related to whether the hand trajectory followed a straight or a curved path, while the y-position of the saccade end-point was related to whether the hand took a path passing from over or below the obstacle. In the second part of the paper, we establish the link between the saccade locations and hand sub-movements and observed that the number and timing of saccades and number of hand velocity peaks were related. Taken together these results indicate that saccades can influence complex hand movement trajectories.