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Decisions in motion: passive body acceleration modulates hand choice.
Romy S Bakker1, Roel H A Weijer2,3, Robert J van Beers2,3
1Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and r.s.bakker@donders.ru.nl.
Journal of Neurophysiology
|March 3, 2017
Summary
Body motion influences hand choice by altering biomechanical costs. The brain uses instantaneous acceleration signals, not future predictions, for hand selection during movement.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomechanics
- Human Motor Control
Background:
- Hand choice decisions are crucial for daily actions.
- Previous studies assumed stationary subjects, neglecting motion's impact on biomechanics.
- Body motion introduces inertial forces affecting arm movement costs.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how passive body motion affects hand choice.
- Determine if the brain accounts for altered biomechanical costs during motion.
- Clarify the role of predicted vs. instantaneous acceleration signals in hand selection.
Main Methods:
- 12 right-handed subjects performed reaching tasks on a linear motion platform.
- Subjects experienced sinusoidal whole-body translation at different frequencies and phases.
- Hand choice was recorded for targets at various locations and motion phases.
Main Results:
- Hand choice showed a general bias towards the dominant hand.
- Hand choice modulated sinusoidally with body motion, influenced by peak acceleration.
- The observed modulation pattern aligned with a cost model using instantaneous acceleration at target onset.
Conclusions:
- The brain incorporates passive body motion's biomechanical costs into hand choice decisions.
- Hand selection during motion appears to rely on immediate sensory (acceleration) input.
- Findings suggest bottom-up processing of motion signals, rather than predictive models, guides hand choice.
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