An optimal velocity for online limb-target regulation processes?

Abstract

The utilization of visual information for the control of ongoing voluntary limb movements has been investigated for more than a century. Recently, online sensorimotor processes for the control of upper-limb reaches were hypothesized to include a distinct process related to the comparison of limb and target positions (i.e., limb-target regulation processes: Elliott et al. in Psychol Bull 136:1023-1044. doi: 10.1037/a0020958 , 2010). In the current study, this hypothesis was tested by presenting participants with brief windows of vision (20ms) when the real-time velocity of the reaching limb rose above selected velocity criteria. One experiment tested the perceptual judgments of endpoint bias (i.e., under- vs. over-shoot), and another experiment tested the shifts in endpoint distributions following an imperceptible target jump. Both experiments revealed that limb-target regulation processes take place at an optimal velocity or "sweet spot" between movement onset and peak limb velocity (i.e., 1.0m/s with the employed movement amplitude and duration). In contrast with pseudo-continuous models of online control (e.g., Elliott et al. in Hum Mov Sci 10:393-418. doi: 10.1016/0167-9457(91)90013-N , 1991), humans likely optimize online limb-target regulation processes by gathering visual information at a rather limited period of time, well in advance of peak limb velocity.