Visuomotor feedback gains are modulated by gaze position.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Motor Control
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Goal-directed reaching relies on gaze fixation at the target for accuracy.
• This strategy utilizes central vision and extraretinal information.
• Previous research highlights benefits for endpoint accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if target fixation optimizes peripheral vision for detecting and responding to reach errors.
• To examine how gaze fixation location influences automatic visuomotor corrections during reaching.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed unimanual goal-directed reaching tasks.
• Gaze fixation points varied in angle and distance relative to the movement path.
• Visual perturbations simulated hand position errors, and visuomotor responses were measured.

Main Results:

• Visuomotor corrections were fastest and strongest when gaze was fixed on the reach target.
• The gain of visuomotor responses decreased with increasing gaze angle and distance from the perturbation.
• Fixation angle significantly impacted response gain more than fixation distance.

Conclusions:

• Fixating the reach target enhances accuracy by improving rapid visuomotor error correction via peripheral vision.
• Gaze angle relative to the movement is a critical factor modulating the gain of these corrective responses.