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Related Experiment Videos

Signal-dependent noise determines motor planning

C M Harris1, D M Wolpert

  • 1Department of Ophthalmology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, and Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK.

Nature
|September 2, 1998
PubMed
Summary

Humans exhibit consistent eye and arm movement paths by minimizing trajectory variance. This theory explains movement smoothness and speed-accuracy trade-offs, unifying control mechanisms for both actions.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Biomechanics

Background:

  • Human movements like saccadic eye movements and goal-directed arm movements involve infinite trajectory possibilities.
  • Despite this, observed movements are stereotyped with smooth, symmetric velocity profiles, especially for brief actions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present a unifying theory for eye and arm movement control.
  • To explain the stereotyped nature of movement trajectories and associated empirical laws.

Main Methods:

  • Proposed a theory based on signal-dependent neural noise, where noise variance increases with control signal magnitude.
  • The core assumption is that trajectory shapes are selected to minimize the variance of the final position.

Main Results:

  • The minimum-variance theory accurately predicts saccadic and arm movement trajectories.
  • The theory explains the speed-accuracy trade-off observed in Fitts's Law.
  • It also reproduces the empirical two-thirds power law relating path curvature and hand velocity during drawing.

Conclusions:

  • A unifying minimum-variance principle explains both eye and arm movement control.
  • This theory is robust to changes in the dynamics of the effector (eye or arm).
  • Provides a simple yet powerful framework for understanding motor control.

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