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Motor commands and the perception of movement patterns
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|February 1, 1980
Summary
Voluntary movement commands alter kinesthetic spatial perception. This study shows motor commands create a bias in how we perceive limb position during constrained movements, impacting sensory processing.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- Kinesthetic receptor activity is modified during voluntary movement.
- Efferent motor commands interact with central processing of kinesthetic sensory input.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if efferent motor commands influence the perception and processing of kinesthetic spatial information during voluntary movement.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments involved subjects moving around unseen stencil patterns.
- Experiment 1: Concurrent tracking of constrained movements with the non-dominant hand.
- Experiment 2: Recall of the pattern with the dominant hand after movement.
Main Results:
- Tracking and recall movements exhibited a systematic spatial bias.
- This bias was consistently in the direction of the commanded movement.
Conclusions:
- Efferent motor commands interact with kinesthetic sensory input during constrained limb movements.
- This interaction leads to a perceived constant error in limb position, biased by the movement command.