Temporal coordination between ocular and manual movements

Life Sciences 2007 (2007) Proc Life Sciences, PC48

Poster Communications: Temporal coordination between ocular and manual movements

M. Sharikadze1, 2, C. K. Dung2, H. Deubel3, W. Wolf2

1. Laboratory of Vision Physiology, I.Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Tbilisi, Georgia. 2. Institute of Mathematics and Information Processing, University of Armed Forces, Munich, Germany. 3. Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

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For a coordinated and consistent goal-directed behaviour, the human brain has to constantly control not only the spatial but also the temporal accuracy of all the movements made by an individual. This is a challenging task when a movement pattern comprises concurrent ocular and manual motor actions. Moreover, the brain is engaged not only in the movement control but also it has to perform the sensory-to-motor translation processes which have to start before the related motor process. Usually, both processes are in sequential order, although they can overlap. What does happen, when two sensory-to-motor translation processes (e.g., a periodic and a discrete) have to be completed in parallel? The temporal accuracy of motor responses under these highly demanded conditions of a dual task tapping paradigm was subject of this investigation. A continuation tapping paradigm (1) employed for a periodic task in which, in the continuation phase, subjects tapped at a rate given by an auditory signal in the preceding synchronization phase. In the first experiment, while tapping with the index finger of the dominant hand, the subjects responded as quickly as possible to a discrete auditory stimulus by their non-dominant index fingers. In the second experiment, in response to the discrete stimulus, subjects have to make a fast two-phasic saccade: first, to the right side and then backwards. By means of two force transducers embedded on the tabletop, an accurate recording of right and left index finger taps was possible. In addition, with high resolution laser distance sensors fixed approximately 10 cm above the fingers, the vertical position of both index finger tips was also acquired. For eye movement registration, the IRIS 6500, infra-red light eye movement system was employed. Moreover, active EMG electrodes, MYO 110, fixed on forearms recorded the EMG signals from the extensors and flexors. Data were recorded at a sampling frequency of 1 KHz and stored for offline analysis. As a result, phase resetting curves (2, 3) showing the temporal relationship between both actions were constructed. It was evident that, in the temporal domain, there is interference between these concurrently performed manual tasks. For the saccades, we found mutual interactions similar to Stuyven et al. (4), but also a novel type of interference: the phase entrainment as well as phase hastening effects (3) describing the mechanism of synchronization between finger tapping and eye movements.



Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.

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