Perception and action influences on discrete and reciprocal bimanual coordination

Abstract

For nearly four decades bimanual coordination, Ba prototype of complex motor skills^and apparent Bwindow into the design of the brain,^has been intensively studied. Past research has focused on describing and modeling the constraints that allow the production of some coordination patterns while limiting effective performance of other bimanual coordination patterns. More recently researchers have identified a coalition of perception-action constraints that hinder the effective production of bimanual skills. The result has been that given specially designed contexts where one or more of these constraints are minimized, bimanual skills once thought difficult, if not impossible, to effectively produce without very extensive practice can be executed effectively with little or no practice. The challenge is to understand how these contextual constraints interact to allow or inhibit the production of complex bimanual coordination skills. In addition, the factors affecting the stability of bimanual coordination tasks needs to be re-conceptualized in terms of perception-related constraints arising from the environmental context in which performance is conducted and action constraints resident in the neuromotor system.

Adapting relative phase of bimanual isometric force coordination through scaling visual information intermittency

“…Implicit in studies examining bimanual coordination is that there are two stable coordination modes: in-and anti-phase (Kelso, 1995;Shea, Buchanan, & Kennedy, 2015). Perceptual information can be manipulated in ways so as to make complex rhythmic tasks more easily accessible to the performer (Kovacs et al, 2009;Mechsner, 2004).…”

Normalization models of cue combination in touch

“…Indeed, the prevalence of aberrant somatosensory processing is high in individuals with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders (48)(49)(50), and our study offers a tractable paradigm for exploring potential links between aberrant touch and alterations in contextual modulation. Future studies with neurotypical and clinical populations must also address how bimanual contextual modulation interacts with and supports bimanual motor control (51,52).…”

Protracted development of visuo-proprioceptive integration for uni-and bimanual motor coordination

“…However, later studies also demonstrated a role of perceptual factors (Brandes, Rezvani, & Heed, 2016;Heed & Röder, 2014;Oliveira & Ivry, 2008;Swinnen et al, 1998;Temprado, Swinnen, Carson, Tourment, & Laurent, 2003; for review, see Shea, Buchanan, & Kennedy, 2016). For instance, when the index fingers are wiggled with one hand turned up, and the other down, symmetrical movements are still performed more successfully than parallel ones, although they now require concurrent activation of non-homologous muscles (Brandes et al, 2017;Heed & Röder, 2014;Mechsner et al, 2001).…”