The Effect of Target Velocity on the Fast Corrective Response during Reaching Movement

Abstract

Online motor control is often required to correct errors in rapid adjustments during reaching movements. It has been established that the initial arm trajectory during reaching is corrected by a target displacement. Since this corrective response occurs without perception of target perturbation, this is regarded as an automatic response. However, an object rarely “jumps” in daily life, rather it often “moves” as a chronological change of the position that causes visual motion. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the implicit visuomotor response is induced by target motion stimuli and to clarify the effects of target motion velocity on initial arm trajectory. Participants were asked to move a cursor from a start circle to a visual target. The target moved either leftward or rightward when the cursor passed 20 mm from the start circle. Four target velocities (10, 20, 30, 40 deg/s) were randomly presented. Our results showed that the initial velocity (first 50 ms) of the fast corrective response increased with the target velocity. Therefore, it is indicated that the fast corrective response is induced by the target motion stimulus with a short latency and its amplitude is dependent on the target velocity.