Large-Field Visual Motion Directly Induces an Involuntary Rapid Manual Following Response

Abstract

Recent neuroscience studies have been concerned with how aimed movements are generated on the basis of target localization. However, visual information from the surroundings as well as from the target can influence arm motor control, in a manner similar to known effects in postural and ocular motor control. Here, we show an ultra-fast manual motor response directly induced by a large-field visual motion. This rapid response aided reaction when the subject moved his hand in the direction of visual motion, suggesting assistive visually evoked manual control during postural movement. The latency of muscle activity generating this response was as short as that of the ocular following responses to the visual motion. Abrupt visual motion entrained arm movement without affecting perceptual target localization, and the degrees of motion coherence and speed of the visual stimulus modulated this arm response. This visuomotor behavior was still observed when the visual motion was confined to the "follow-through" phase of a hitting movement, in which no target existed. An analysis of the arm movements suggests that the hitting follow through made by the subject is not a part of a reaching movement. Moreover, the arm response was systematically modulated by hand bias forces, suggesting that it results from a reflexive control mechanism. We therefore propose that its mechanism is radically distinct from motor control for aimed movements to a target. Rather, in an analogy with reflexive eye movement stabilizing a retinal image, we consider that this mechanism regulates arm movements in parallel with voluntary motor control.

Comparing and validating models of driver steering behaviour in collision avoidance and vehicle stabilisation

“…This insight helps explain the success of the Salvucci & Gray model in fitting the stabilization steering data, and also provides a candidate for a perceptual cue supporting yaw rate nulling behavior. However, the fact that the far point was parameter-fitted, here, to D f = 123 m ahead of the truck, whereas the 3 • down from the horizon suggested by previous authors [37,40] correspond to D f ≈ 50 m for the truck in the experiment, could be taken to suggest that also other cues, such as vestibular cues [23] or large-field visual motion [55] may have been at play.…”

Implicit Visuomotor Processing for Quick Online Reactions Is Robust against Aging

“…3 A, B, solid curves), on the other hand, the hand trajectories deviated from the control as well. These deviations are also regarded as implicit visuomotor reactions (MFR) (Saijo et al, 2005;Gomi et al, 2006;Gomi, 2008). As shown in Figure 3A, these deviations of trajectories were readjusted in the later phase of reaching so that the reaching went to the center visible target.…”

“…During reaching movement, the hand can quickly adjust to target displacement (Soechting and Lacquaniti, 1983;Brenner and Smeets, 1997;Day and Lyon, 2000) even without perception of target location change (Goodale et al, 1986;Prablanc and Martin, 1992). Another type of quick and automatic reaction has also been observed when a surrounding visual motion is suddenly given during reaching, called the manual following response (MFR) (Brenner and Smeets, 1997;Whitney et al, 2003;Saijo et al, 2005;Gomi et al, 2006;Gomi, 2008). The reaction latencies of these two types of responses are much faster [100 -150 ms vs Ͼ250 ms for discrimination-reaction tasks (Anzola et al, 1977;Heister et al, 1986)], even though participants in the reaction tasks intently concentrated on detecting the stimulus onset.…”

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“…It is known that when irrelevant structures in the surrounding move, they 'pull' the hand in their direction of motion (Brenner and Smeets 1997;Saijo et al 2005;Whitney et al 2003). Perhaps this occurs because the retinal motion signals are interpreted as the consequence of oneself having moved.…”