Adaptive tuning of interlimb attraction to facilitate bimanual decoupling

Motor skills that require limbs to concurrently produce different spatiotemporal patterns are often quite difficult to learn. This article outlines a general strategy for training subjects to perform skills that require such disparate limb movements. The strategy is based on the notion that certain preferred movement patterns naturally emerge through the dynamics of the perceptual-motor system, even when quite different movements are intended. The training strategy proposes that the acquisition of relative motion patterns that diverge from preferred patterns can be facilitated by initially "tuning" system dynamics to reduce interlimb attraction. The schedule for the dynamical tuning is adopted from the adaptive training method previously applied to tracking tasks. Preliminary evidence is provided in support of this strategy for learning a bimanual task requiring both structural and metrical interlimb decoupling.