Bimanual coordination during rhythmic movements in the absence of somatosensory feedback

We investigated the role of somatosensory feedback during bimanual coordination by testing a bilaterally deafferented patient, a unilaterally deafferented patient, and three control participants on a repetitive bimanual circle-drawing task. Circles were drawn symmetrically or asymmetrically at varying speeds with full, partial, or no vision of the hands. Strong temporal coupling was observed between the hands at all movement rates during symmetrical drawing and at the comfortable movement rate during asymmetrical drawing in all participants. When making asymmetric movements at the comfortable and faster rates, the patients and controls exhibited similar evidence of pattern instability, including a reduction in temporal coupling and trajectory deformation. The patients differed from controls on measures of spatial coupling and variability. The amplitudes and shapes of the two circles were less similar across limbs for the patients than the controls and the circles produced by the patients tended to drift in extrinsic space across successive cycles. These results indicate that somatosensory feedback is not critical for achieving temporal coupling between the hands nor does it contribute significantly to the disruption of asymmetrical coordination at faster movement rates. However, spatial consistency and position, both within and between limbs, were disrupted in the absence of somatosensory feedback.