The influence of the Brentano illusion on eye and hand movements

Abstract

When making an eye movement and a hand movement toward a visual target, the movements could be guided by visual judgments of direction and distance (or length) of the required displacement (vector coding), estimates of the final position (position coding), or both. Using the same information for the eyes and the hand is efficient; however, if this information contains an error, this causes both the eye and the hand to be incorrect. In this study, we tried to find out whether saccades and pointing movements use the same source of information when eye and hand movements are performed either concurrently or separately. Four experiments have been performed using the Brentano illusion, which primarily influences judgments of length but not those of position. This illusion only influences movements if the illusory length is relevant for the task, demonstrating that vector coding is involved. Subjects made saccades, pointing movements, or both between vertices of the Brentano illusion. The illusion influenced saccades and pointing movements when these movements were performed concurrently and separately, showing that the eye and the hand use vector coding. However, depending on the task, eye and hand movements were influenced to a different extent. This favors the interpretation that the eyes and the hand use a common motor command but each with a different relative contribution of vector coding.