Reaching to inhibit a prepotent response: A wearable 3-axis accelerometer kinematic analysis

Area of Science:

• Motor control and cognitive neuroscience
• Human movement analysis
• Biomechanics

Background:

• Understanding motor planning and control is crucial for deciphering human movement.
• Differentiating cognitive processes in dominant versus non-dominant movements remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the distinct roles of motor planning and control in human reaching movements.
• To compare kinematic measures between dominant and non-dominant movements using a Go/No-Go task.
• To assess the feasibility of accelerometer-based analysis for distinguishing cognitive mechanisms in movement.

Main Methods:

• Adapted a Go/No-Go task for 19 adults to elicit dominant and non-dominant reaching movements.
• Utilized a wrist-worn 3-axis accelerometer to capture raw acceleration data.
• Computed velocity components from acceleration data to analyze movement kinematics.

Main Results:

• Inhibition of a prepotent response (non-dominant movement) resulted in longer reaction times and movement durations.
• Peak velocity occurred later in non-dominant movements, indicating increased motor planning.
• Accelerometer data successfully discriminated between planning and control components of dominant and non-dominant actions.

Conclusions:

• Accelerometer-based kinematic analysis is a feasible method for disentangling cognitive mechanisms in human movement.
• Suppressing a dominant response necessitates more extensive motor planning compared to executing a dominant response.
• The findings contribute to understanding the neural basis of response inhibition and motor selection.