Abstract
The majority of human behaviors are composed of automatic movements (e.g., walking or finger-tapping) which are learned during nurturing and can be performed simultaneously without interfering with other tasks. One critical and yet to be examined assumption is that the attention system has the innate capacity to modulate automatic movements. The present study tests this assumption. Setting no deliberate goals for movement, we required sixteen participants to perform personalized and well-practiced finger-tapping movements in three experiments while focusing their attention on either different component fingers or away from movements. Using cutting-edge pose estimation techniques to quantify tapping trajectory, we showed that attention to movement can disrupt movement automaticity, as indicated by decreased inter-finger and inter-trial temporal coherence; facilitate the attended and inhibit the unattended movements in terms of tapping amplitude; and re-organize the action sequence into distinctive patterns according to the focus of attention. These findings demonstrate compelling evidence that attention can modulate automatic movements and provide an empirical foundation for theories based on such modulation in controlling human behavior.
Highlights
The majority of human behaviors are composed of automatic movements which are learned during nurturing and can be performed simultaneously without interfering with other tasks
Automatic movement operationally refers to those movements that can be performed without interfering with other tasks[4,5]
The present study was, to our best knowledge, the first to demonstrate that attention can modulate automatic movements without deliberate goals
Summary
The majority of human behaviors are composed of automatic movements (e.g., walking or fingertapping) which are learned during nurturing and can be performed simultaneously without interfering with other tasks. Using cutting-edge pose estimation techniques to quantify tapping trajectory, we showed that attention to movement can disrupt movement automaticity, as indicated by decreased inter-finger and inter-trial temporal coherence; facilitate the attended and inhibit the unattended movements in terms of tapping amplitude; and re-organize the action sequence into distinctive patterns according to the focus of attention. With specific goals to fulfill, it is natural to assume that participants would deliberately control certain aspects of their movements (e.g., force, timing, speed, coordination) As a result, such studies are incapable of elucidating the complex relationship between attention and automatic movement, given it is impossible to conclude that such actions are not entirely voluntary. Though worthy of further scrutinization using more sensitive analyses (e.g., pattern analysis), the non-significant effect of attention on neural activities in the striatum poses a challenge for determining whether attention truly modulates automatic movements of healthy people free of movement disorders
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