Pursuing a target with one's eyes helps judge its velocity

Malla, Cristina de la; Smeets, Jeroen B. J.; Brenner, Eli

doi:10.1177/03010066221133324

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…If our subjects were better at tracking horizontally moving targets than vertically moving targets, and if better smooth pursuit in our study was associated with greater sensitivity to speed differences (as was found by de la Malla et al, 2022), then this could have contributed to subjects' greater sensitivity to the accelerations of horizontally versus downwardly-moving objects in Experiment 3. But this hypothesis (unlike the more parsimonious "better sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity" hypothesis) leaves unexplained why subjects were later less sensitive to the decelerations of horizontally versus downwardly-moving objects in Experiment 5.…”

Section: Can Eye Movements Explain These Results?supporting

confidence: 54%

May the force be against you: Better visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity.

Nguyen¹,

Buren²

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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Beyond seemingly lower-level features such as color and motion, visual perception also recovers properties more commonly associated with higher-level thought, as when an upwardly accelerating object is seen not just as moving, but moreover as self-propelled, and resisting the force of gravity. Given past research demonstrating the prioritization of living things in attention and memory, here we hypothesized that observers would be more sensitive to an object’s speed changes if those speed changes were opposite to natural gravitational acceleration. Across six experiments, we found that observers were more sensitive to objects’ accelerations when they moved upward (when those accelerations were opposite to gravity) and less sensitive to their accelerations when they moved downward (when those accelerations were consistent with gravity). Moreover, observers were more sensitive to objects’ decelerations when they moved downward (when those decelerations appeared as “braking” against gravity), and less sensitive to their decelerations when they moved upward (when those decelerations were consistent with gravity). This greater visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity is consistent with previous results suggesting that we readily monitor the world for cues to animacy.

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Section: Can Eye Movements Explain These Results?supporting

confidence: 54%

May the force be against you: Better visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity.

Nguyen¹,

Buren²

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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“…6, Results). This form of fixation has been used in previous studies to suppress eye movements during motion-perception tasks (24, 38). During the CONST blocks, the extraretinal signals associated with SPEM were minimized, and participants could only judge motion through retinal slip of the object’s image on the retina (retinal motion).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6, Results). This form of fixation has been used in previous studies to suppress eye movements during motionperception tasks (24, 37). At the conclusion of the 8 blocks, the participants performed 4 blocks of free-viewing (FV2) trials again.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Higher SPEM speeds are predicted to modulate the motor timing during free viewing whereas anticipatory responses are predicted to be upregulated with an increase in object mass or speed. When eye movements are constrained, we predict an earlier motor response, and larger anticipatory forces since humans perceive faster object motion during fixed gaze compared to when they pursue an object with SPEM (22)(23)(24)34). The second goal of the study was to probe if manipulating the force requirements during the contact would have an upstream effect on how the ocular motor system tracks moving objects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Catching studies have shown that participants are less accurate when fixating compared to when they pursue moving targets with SPEM (20,21). Observers also tend to overestimate target speed during fixation, compared to when eye movements are unrestricted (22)(23)(24). This overestimation likely also contributes to participants making interception movements ahead of moving targets when they are fixating instead of pursuing targets (25).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Smooth pursuit eye movements contribute to anticipatory force control during mechanical stopping of moving objects

Sinha¹,

Madarshahian²,

Gómez-Granados³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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When stopping a closing door or catching an object, humans process the motion of inertial objects and apply reactive limb force over short period to interact with them. One way in which the visual system processes motion is through extraretinal signals associated with smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM). We conducted three experiments to investigate how SPEM contributes to anticipatory and reactive hand force modulation when interacting with a virtual object moving in the horizontal plane. Participants held a robotic manipulandum and attempted to stop an approaching simulated object by applying a force impulse (area under force-time curve) that matched the objects virtual momentum upon contact. We manipulated the objects momentum by varying either its virtual mass or its speed under free gaze or fixed gaze conditions. We examined gaze variables, timing of hand motor responses, anticipatory force control, and overall task performance. Our results show that extraretinal signals associated with SPEM are important for anticipatory modulation of hand force prior to contact. However, SPEM did not seem to affect the timing of the motor response or the task performance. Together, these results suggest that SPEM are important for anticipatory control of hand force prior to contact and may also play a critical role in anticipatory stabilization of limb posture when humans interact with moving objects.

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The effect of impaired velocity signals on goal-directed eye and hand movements

de la Malla,

Goettker

2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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Information about position and velocity is essential to predict where moving targets will be in the future, and to accurately move towards them. But how are the two signals combined over time to complete goal-directed movements? We show that when velocity information is impaired due to using second-order motion stimuli, saccades directed towards moving targets land at positions where targets were ~ 100 ms before saccade initiation, but hand movements are accurate. Importantly, the longer latencies of hand movements allow for additional time to process the sensory information available. When increasing the period of time one sees the moving target before making the saccade, saccades become accurate. In line with that, hand movements with short latencies show higher curvature, indicating corrections based on an update of incoming sensory information. These results suggest that movements are controlled by an independent and evolving combination of sensory information about the target’s position and velocity.

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Pursuing a target with one's eyes helps judge its velocity

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

May the force be against you: Better visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity.

May the force be against you: Better visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity.

Smooth pursuit eye movements contribute to anticipatory force control during mechanical stopping of moving objects

The effect of impaired velocity signals on goal-directed eye and hand movements

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