Spatial Accuracy of Predictive Saccades Determines the Performance of Continuous Visuomotor Action.

Chisa Aoyama,Naofumi Suematsu,Koji Kadota,Ryoma Goya,Yuji Yamamoto,Satoshi Shimegi

doi:10.3389/fspor.2021.775478

Chisa Aoyama, Naofumi Suematsu + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.775478

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Abstract

In a table tennis rally, players perform interceptive actions on a moving ball continuously in a short time, such that the acquisition process of visual information is an important determinant of the performance of the action. However, because it is technically hard to measure gaze movement in a real game, little is known about how gaze behavior is conducted during the continuous visuomotor actions and contributes to the performance. To examine these points, we constructed a novel psychophysical experiment model enabling a continuous visuomotor task without spatial movement of any body parts, including the arm and head, and recorded the movement of the gaze and effector simultaneously at high spatiotemporal resolution. In the task, Gabor patches (target) moved one after another at a constant speed from right to left at random vertical positions on an LC display. Participants hit the target with a cursor moving vertically on the left side of the display by controlling their prehensile force on a force sensor. Participants hit the target with the cursor using a rapid-approaching movement (rapid cursor approach, RCA). Their gaze also showed rapid saccadic approaching movement (saccadic eye approach, SEA), reaching the predicted arrival point of the target earlier than the cursor. The RCA reached in or near the Hit zone in the successful (Hit) trial, but ended up away from it in the unsuccessful (Miss) trial, suggesting the spatial accuracy of the RCA determines the task's success. The SEA in the Hit trial ended nearer the target than the Miss trial. The spatial accuracy of the RCA diminished when the target disappeared 100 ms just after the end of the SEA, suggesting that visual information acquired after the saccade acted as feedback information to correct the cursor movement online for the cursor to reach the target. There was a target speed condition that the target disappearance did not compromise RCA's spatial accuracy, implying the possible RCA correction based on the post-saccadic gaze location information. These experiments clarified that gaze behavior conducted during fast continuous visuomotor actions enables online correction of the ongoing interceptive movement of an effector, improving visuomotor performance.

Highlights

In a table tennis rally, players continuously perform a visually driven action that aims a fast-moving ball from various positions on their rackets within a limited time
We examined how gaze behavior is conducted during continuous visuomotor actions and contributes to the performance using the CVM task
The main results are summarized as follows: (1) eyes typically moved rapidly toward the Hit zone in a saccadic manner, (2) the co-occurrence rate of the SEA and rapid cursor approach (RCA) was strongly correlated with the task performance (Hit rate), (3) the SEA was completed before completion of the RCA, (4) the SEA and RCA end-point positions in the Hit trials were closer to the Hit zone than in the Miss trials, and (5) the RCA end-point position was larger in the NoFB condition than control condition

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In a table tennis rally, players continuously perform a visually driven action that aims a fast-moving ball from various positions on their rackets within a limited time. The direct contribution of eye movements to visuomotor actions, especially continuous actions, such as those in table tennis, have hardly been examined Those that did study this contribution measured gaze direction when striking a ball in table tennis and cricket (Ripoll et al, 1987; Land and McLeod, 2000; Mann et al, 2019). Based on the findings of previous research, we constructed the following two hypotheses (1) Predictive saccades is involved in continuously striking a fast-moving ball (target) under tight time-constrained conditions such as table tennis, and (2) the performance of the saccade contributes to the success or failure of the striking and the accuracy of the strike performance. The task was designed to require the basic visuomotor actions needed during table tennis rallies to examine the role of eye movement in the continuous visuomotor action by the players

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