Mixed body- and gaze-centered coding of proprioceptive reach targets after effector movement

Previous studies demonstrated that an effector movement intervening between encoding and reaching to a proprioceptive target determines the underlying reference frame: proprioceptive reach targets are represented in a gaze-independent reference frame if no movement occurs but are represented with respect to gaze after an effector movement (Mueller and Fiehler, 2014a). The present experiment explores whether an effector movement leads to a switch from a gaze-independent, body-centered reference frame to a gaze-dependent reference frame or whether a gaze-dependent reference frame is employed in addition to a gaze-independent, body-centered reference frame. Human participants were asked to reach in complete darkness to an unseen finger (proprioceptive target) of their left target hand indicated by a touch. They completed 2 conditions in which the target hand remained either stationary at the target location (stationary condition) or was actively moved to the target location, received a touch and was moved back before reaching to the target (moved condition). We dissociated the location of the movement vector relative to the body midline and to the gaze direction. Using correlation and regression analyses, we estimated the contribution of each reference frame based on horizontal reach errors in the stationary and moved conditions. Gaze-centered coding was only found in the moved condition, replicating our previous results. Body-centered coding dominated in the stationary condition while body- and gaze-centered coding contributed equally strong in the moved condition. Our results indicate a shift from body-centered to combined body- and gaze-centered coding due to an effector movement before reaching towards proprioceptive targets.