Characteristic of Motor Control in Three-Dimensional Circular Tracking Movements during Monocular Vision

Abstract

Analysis of visually guided tracking movements is an important component of understanding human visuomotor control system. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of different target speeds and different circular tracking planes, which provide different visual feedback of depth information, on temporal and spatial tracking accuracy. In this study, we analyze motor control characteristic of circular tracking movements during monocular vision in three-dimensional space using a virtual reality system. Three parameters in polar coordinates were analyzed: ΔR, the difference in the distance from the fixed pole; Δθ, the difference in the position angle; and Δω, the difference in the angular velocity. We compare the accuracy of visually guided circular tracking movements during monocular vision in two conditions: (1) movement in the frontal plane relative to the subject that requires less depth information and (2) movement in the sagittal plane relative to the subject that requires more depth information. We also examine differences in motor control at four different target speeds. The results show that depth information affects both spatial and temporal accuracy of circular tracking movement, whereas target speed only affects temporal accuracy of circular tracking movement. This suggests that different strategies of feedforward and feedback controls are performed in the tracking of movements.

Analysis of motor control strategy for frontal and sagittal planes of circular tracking movements using visual feedback noise from velocity change and depth information

“…Depth information is required in order to determine the position of the target on the sagittal plane [15]. When performing a tracking movement that includes depth information, visual feedback on the position of the target is not sufficient [15][16][17][18]. Most of the previous studies analyzed the tracking motion from the frontal plane, and accordingly, the tracking motion analysis reflecting depth information was insufficient [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…With the recent development of virtual reality (VR) technology, it was possible to implement various human movement experiments in a 3D virtual space. Some previous studies analyzed circular tracking motion in a 3D space, including depth information, using these VR devices [16][17][18][19]. In these studies, the tracking movement with constant velocity was conducted on the frontal and sagittal planes.…”

“…One study analyzed positional errors in Cartesian coordinates [16]. Another study analyzed the three parameters ΔR (the difference in the distance from the fixed pole), Δθ (the difference in the position angle), and Δω (the difference in the angular velocity) in terms of the polar coordinates [17]. It was reported that the positional error is influenced by the depth information, and the phase error(Δθ) is proportional to the target velocity.…”

“…However, in the case of the sagittal plane, there is a difference in depth information depending on each position of the target, which causes a difference in the visual information where the target exists in the orbit. In the previous studies using VR, the average value of the parameters measured were analyzed without considering the difference in depth information according to the position of the target [16,17]. For this reason, the previous studies were insufficient for analyzing the difference in visual feedback information [16,17].…”

“…In the previous studies using VR, the average value of the parameters measured were analyzed without considering the difference in depth information according to the position of the target [16,17]. For this reason, the previous studies were insufficient for analyzing the difference in visual feedback information [16,17].…”