A nearby distractor does not influence hand movements

Kiki Arkesteijn*, Mieke Donk, Artem V. Belopolsky, Jeroen B.J. Smeets

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

When interacting with the environment, our manual actions are often preceded by an eye movement. This suggests that the processes underlying target selection in hand and eye movements may be coupled. It is known that when a distractor is presented close to a target, the endpoint of an eye movement will be biased towards the distractor. The size of this so-called global effect decreases when more viewing time is available. Here we investigate whether a similar effect is also present in hand movements. If the processes underlying target selection for hand and eye movements are indeed coupled, a similar bias should be present in hand movements as well. To test this, we adopted a classic global effect paradigm but applied it to goal-directed hand movements. We show that the endpoints of hand movements are unbiased for all but one participant, irrespective of the viewing time. These results suggest that the processes underlying target selection for hand movements operate independently from those for eye movements.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)204-212
Number of pages9
JournalCortex
Volume142
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by an Open Research Area Grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to Artem Belopolsky [ ORA 464-15-193 ].

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Accuracy
  • Averaging
  • Hand movement
  • Motor plan
  • Selection

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