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With every eye movement, visual input projected onto our retina changes drastically. The fundamental question of how we keep track of relevant objects and movement targets has puzzled scientists for more than a century. Recent advances suggested that this can be accomplished through the process of predictive remapping of visual attention to the future post-saccadic locations of relevant objects. Evidence for the existence of predictive remapping of attention was first provided by Rolfs et al. (2011) (Nature Neuroscience, 14, 252-256). However, they used a single distant control location away from the task-relevant locations, which could have biased the allocation of visual attention. In this study we used a similar experimental paradigm as Rolfs et al. (2011), but probed attention equally likely at all possible locations. Our results showed that discrimination performance was higher at the remapped location than at a distant control location, but not compared to the other two control locations. A re-analysis of the results obtained by Rolfs et al. (2011) revealed a similar pattern. Together, these findings suggest that it is likely that previous reports of the predictive remapping of attention were due to a diffuse spread of attention to the task-relevant locations rather than to a specific shift toward the target's future retinotopic location.

Illusions are characterized by inconsistencies. For instance, in the motion aftereffect, we see motion without an equivalent change in position. We used a simple pencil-and-paper experiment to determine whether illusions that influence an object’s apparent size give rise to equivalent changes in apparent positions along the object’s outline. We found different results for two equally strong size illusions. The Ebbinghaus illusion affected perceived positions in a way that was consistent with its influence on perceived size, but a modified diagonal illusion did not affect perceived positions. This difference between the illusions might explain why there are so many conflicting reports about the effects of size illusions on the maximum grip aperture during reach-to-grasp movements.

When asked to move their unseen hand-to-visual targets, people exhibit idiosyncratic but reliable visuo-proprioceptive matching errors. Unsurprisingly, vision and proprioception quickly align when these errors are made apparent by providing visual feedback of the position of the hand. However, retention of this learning is limited, such that the original matching errors soon reappear when visual feedback is removed. Several recent motor learning studies have shown that reward feedback can improve retention relative to error feedback. Here, using a visuo-proprioceptive position-matching task, we examined whether binary reward feedback can be effectively exploited to reduce matching errors and, if so, whether this learning leads to improved retention relative to learning based on error feedback. The results show that participants were able to adjust the visuo-proprioceptive mapping with reward feedback, but that the level of retention was similar to that observed when the adjustment was accomplished with error feedback. Therefore, similar to error feedback, reward feedback allows for temporary recalibration, but does not support long-lasting retention of this recalibration.

When learning a movement based on binary success information, one is more variable following failure than following success. Theoretically, the additional variability post-failure might reflect exploration of possibilities to obtain success. When average behavior is changing (as in learning), variability can be estimated from differences between subsequent movements. Can one estimate exploration reliably from such trial-to-trial changes when studying reward-based motor learning? To answer this question, we tried to reconstruct the exploration underlying learning as described by four existing reward-based motor learning models. We simulated learning for various learner and task characteristics. If we simply determined the additional change post-failure, estimates of exploration were sensitive to learner and task characteristics. We identified two pitfalls in quantifying exploration based on trial-to-trial changes. Firstly, performance-dependent feedback can cause correlated samples of motor noise and exploration on successful trials, which biases exploration estimates. Secondly, the trial relative to which trial-to-trial change is calculated may also contain exploration, which causes underestimation. As a solution, we developed the additional trial-to-trial change (ATTC) method. By moving the reference trial one trial back and subtracting trial-to-trial changes following specific sequences of trial outcomes, exploration can be estimated reliably for the three models that explore based on the outcome of only the previous trial. Since ATTC estimates are based on a selection of trial sequences, this method requires many trials. In conclusion, if exploration is a binary function of previous trial outcome, the ATTC method allows for a model-free quantification of exploration. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00422-021-00884-8.

Visual search in dynamic environments, for example lifeguarding or CCTV monitoring, has several fundamentally different properties to standard visual search tasks. The visual environment is constantly moving, a range of items could become targets and the task is to search for a certain event. We developed a novel task in which participants were required to search static and moving displays for an orientation change thus capturing components of visual search, multiple object tracking and change detection paradigms. In Experiment 1, we found that the addition of moving distractors slowed participants’ response time to detect an orientation changes in a moving target, showing that the motion of distractors disrupts the rapid detection of orientation changes in a moving target. In Experiment 2 we found that, in displays of both moving and static objects, response time was slower if a moving object underwent a change than if a static object did, thus demonstrating that motion of the target itself also disrupts the detection of an orientation change. Our results could have implications for training in real-world occupations where the task is to search a dynamic environment for a critical event. Moreover, we add to the literature highlighting the need to develop lab-based tasks with high experimental control from any real-world tasks researchers may wish to investigate rather than extrapolating from static visual search tasks to more dynamic environments. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41235-021-00312-2.

Contains fulltext : 234095.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Faster movements are typically more variable - a speed-accuracy tradeoff known as Fitts' law. Are movements that are initiated faster also more variable? Neurophysiological work has associated larger neural variability during motor preparation with longer reaction time (RT) and larger movement variability, implying that movement variability decreases with increasing RT. Here, we recorded over 30000 reaching movements in eleven human participants who moved to visually-cued targets. Half of the visual cues was accompanied by a beep to evoke a wide RT range in each participant. Results show that initial reach variability decreases with increasing RT, for voluntarily produced RTs up to ~300 ms, while other kinematic aspects and endpoint accuracy remained unaffected. We conclude that movement preparation time determines initial movement variability. We suggest that the chosen movement preparation time reflects a trade-off between movement initiation and precision. 9 p.

Identification of individuals at risk of falling is important when designing fall prevention methods. Current measures that estimate gait stability and robustness appear limited in predicting falls in older adults. Inspired by recent findings on changes in phase-dependent local stability within a gait cycle, we devised several phase-dependent stability measures and tested for their usefulness to predict gait robustness in compass walker models. These measures are closely related to the often-employed maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponent and maximum Floquet multiplier that both assess a system's response to infinitesimal perturbations. As such, they entail linearizing the system, but this is realized in a rotating hypersurface orthogonal to the period-one solution followed by estimating the trajectory-normal divergence rate of the swing phases and the foot strikes. We correlated the measures with gait robustness, i.e. the largest perturbation a walker can handle, in two compass walker models with either point or circular feet to estimate their prediction accuracy. To also test for the dependence of the measures under state space transform, we represented the point feet walker in both Euler–Lagrange and Hamiltonian canonical form. Our simulations revealed that for most of the measures their correlation with gait robustness differs between models and between different state space forms. In particular, the latter may jeopardize many stability measures' predictive capacity for gait robustness. The only exception that consistently displayed strong correlations is the divergence of foot strike. Our results admit challenges of using phase-dependent stability measures as objective means to estimate the risk of falling.

People use both egocentric (object-to-self) and allocentric (object-to-object) spatial information to interact with the world. Evidence for allocentric information guiding ongoing actions stems from studies in which people reached to where targets had previously been seen while other objects were moved. Since egocentric position judgments might fade or change when the target is removed, we sought for conditions in which people might benefit from relying on allocentric information when the target remains visible. We used a task that required participants to intercept targets that moved across a screen using a cursor that represented their finger but that moved by a di?erent amount in a different plane. During each attempt, we perturbed the target, cursor, or background individually or all three simultaneously such that their relative positions did not change and there was no need to adjust the ongoing movement. An obvious way to avoid responding to such simultaneous perturbations is by relying on allocentric information. Relying on egocentric information would give a response that resembles the combined responses to the three isolated perturbations. The hand responded in accordance with the responses to the isolated perturbations despite the differences between how the finger and cursor moved. This response remained when the simultaneous perturbation was repeated many times, suggesting that participants hardly relied upon allocentric spatial information to control their ongoing visually guided actions.

It has been suggested that sensorimotor adaptation involves at least two processes (i.e., fast and slow) that differ in retention and error sensitivity. Previous work has shown that repeated exposure to an abrupt force field perturbation results in greater error sensitivity for both the fast and slow processes. While this implies that the faster relearning is associated with increased error sensitivity, it remains unclear what aspects of prior experience modulate error sensitivity. In the present study, we manipulated the initial training using different perturbation schedules, thought to differentially affect fast and slow learning processes based on error magnitude, and then observed what effect prior learning had on subsequent adaptation. During initial training of a visuomotor rotation task, we exposed three groups of participants to either an abrupt, a gradual, or a random perturbation schedule. During a testing session, all three groups were subsequently exposed to an abrupt perturbation schedule. Comparing the two sessions of the control group who experienced repetition of the same perturbation, we found an increased error sensitivity for both processes. We found that the error sensitivity was increased for both the fast and slow processes, with no reliable changes in the retention, for both the gradual and structural learning groups when compared to the first session of the control group. We discuss the findings in the context of how fast and slow learning processes respond to a history of errors.New & NoteworthyWe investigated what aspects of prior experience modulate error sensitivity, within the framework of a two-state model of short-term sensorimotor adaptation. We manipulated initial training on a visuomotor adaptation reaching task using specific perturbation schedules that are thought to differentially affect fast and slow learning processes, and we tested what effect these had on subsequent adaptation. We found that sensitivity to adaptation error was similarly modulated by abrupt, gradual, and random perturbation schedules.

Purpose Human sensory and motor systems deteriorate with age. When walking, older adults may therefore find it more difficult to adjust their steps to new visual information, especially considering that such adjustments require control of balance as well as of foot trajectory. Our study investigates the effects of ageing on lower limb responses to unpredictable target shifts. Methods Participants walked on a treadmill with projected stepping targets that occasionally shifted in the medial or lateral direction. The shifts occurred at a random moment during the early half of the swing phase of either leg. Kinematic, kinetic and muscle activity data were collected. Results Older adults responded later and corrected for a smaller proportion of the shift than young adults. The order in which muscle activation changed was similar in both groups, with responses of gluteus medius and semitendinosus from about 120 to 140 ms after the shift. Most muscles responded slightly later to lateral target shifts in the older adults than in the young adults, but this difference was not observed for medial target shifts. Ageing delayed the behavioural responses more than it did the electromyographic (EMG) responses. Conclusions Our study suggests that older adults can adjust their walking to small target shifts during the swing phase, but not as well as young adults. Furthermore, muscle strength probably plays a substantial role in the changes in online adjustments during ageing.

When making goal-directed movements toward a target, our hand deviates from its path in the direction of sudden background motion.We propose that this manual following response arises because ongoing movements are constantly guided toward the planned movement endpoint. Such guidance is needed to compensate for modest, unexpected self-motion. Our proposal is that the compensation for such self-motion does not involve a sophisticated analysis of the global optic flow. Instead, we propose that any motion in the vicinity of the planned endpoint is attributed to the endpoint’s egocentric position having shifted in the direction of the motion. The ongoing movement is then stabilized relative to the shifted endpoint. In six experiments, we investigate what aspects of motion determine this shift of planned endpoint. We asked participants to intercept a moving target when it reached a certain area. During the target’s motion, background structures briefly moved either leftward or rightward. Participants’ hands responded to background motion even when each background structure was only briefly visible or when the vast majority of background structures remained static. The response was not restricted to motion along the target’s path but was most sensitive to motion close to where the target was to be hit, both in the visual field and in depth. In this way, a movement stabilization mechanism provides a comprehensive explanation of many aspects of the manual following response.

People often look at objects that they are holding in their hands. It is therefore reasonable to expect them to be able to direct their gaze precisely with respect to their fingers. However, we know that people make reproducible idiosyncratic errors of up to a few centimetres when they try to align a visible cursor to their own finger hidden below a surface. To find out whether they also make idiosyncratic errors when they try to look at their finger, we asked participants to hold their finger in front of their head in the dark, and look at it. Participants made idiosyncratic errors of a similar magnitude to those previously found when matching a visual cursor to their hidden finger. This shows that proprioceptive position sense of finger and gaze are not aligned, suggesting that people rely on vision to guide their gaze to their own finger.

Background and Objectives: Individuals evaluate the demands and resources associated with a pressurized situation, which leads to distinct patterns of cardiovascular responses. While it is accepted that cognitive evaluations are updated throughout a pressurized situation, to date, cardiovascular markers have only been recorded immediately before, or averaged across, these situations. Thus, this study examined the influence of in-task performance-related feedback on cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat to explore fluctuations in these markers. Methods and Design: Forty participants completed a pressurized visual search task while cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat were recorded. During the task, participants received either positive or negative feedback via distinct auditory tones to induce a challenge or threat state. Following task completion, cardiovascular markers were recorded during a recovery phase. Results: Participants’ cardiovascular responses changed across the experimental protocol. Specifically, while participants displayed a cardiovascular response more reflective of a challenge state following in-task performance-related feedback, participants exhibited a response more akin to a threat state later during the recovery phase. Conclusions: In-task auditory performance-related feedback promoted cardiovascular markers of a challenge state. These markers fluctuated over the experiment, suggesting that they, and presumably underlying demand and resource evaluations, are relatively dynamic in nature.

About two in three people have experienced carsickness at some point in their life (Reason & Brand, 1975). Little is known about current numbers of sufferers, cultural differences, or which modulating factors are being perceived as most relevant. Therefore, given a global increase of interest in carsickness driven by the development of automated vehicles, this survey intended to assess the status quo of carsickness in different parts of the world. We conducted an online survey with N = 4,479 participants in Brazil, China, Germany, UK and USA. 46% of participants indicated they had experienced some degree of carsickness in the past five years as a passenger in a car. When including childhood experiences, this rate increased to 59%, comparable to the 1975 findings by Reason and Brand. The highest and lowest incidence of carsickness was reported in China and Germany, respectively. In all countries, men and older participants reported a lower incidence of carsickness as compared to females and younger participants. The main modulating factors were found to be driving dynamics, visual activities, and low air quality. This study showed that carsickness still affects about 2/3 of passengers and discusses how its occurrence relates to in-transit activities and other modes of transport. The research provides a sound basis to further study how carsickness develops and to investigate countermeasures to potentially reduce it.

Being able to anticipate upcoming motion is known to potentially mitigate sickness resulting from provocative motion. We investigated whether auditory cues could increase anticipation and subsequently reduce motion sickness. Participants (N = 20) were exposed on a sled on a rail track to two 15-min conditions. Both were identical in terms of motion, being composed of the same repeated 9 m fore-aft displacements, with a semi-random timing of pauses and direction. The auditory cues were either 1) informative on the timing and direction of the upcoming motion, or 2) non-informative. Illness ratings were recorded at 1-min intervals using a 11-point scale. After exposure, average illness ratings were significantly lower for the condition that contained informative auditory cues, as compared to the condition without informative cues. This knowledge, i.e. that auditory signals can improve anticipation to motion, could be of importance in reducing carsickness in domains such as that of autonomous vehicles.

A Huxley-type cross-bridge model is attractive because it is inspired by our current understanding of the processes underlying muscle contraction, and because it provides a unified description of muscle's mechanical behavior and metabolic energy expenditure. In this study, we determined the computational cost for task optimization of a largeish-scale musculoskeletal model in which muscles are represented by a 2-state Huxley-type cross-bridge model. Parameter values defining the rate functions of the Huxley-type cross-bridge model could be chosen such that the steady-state force-velocity relation resembled that of a Hill-type model. Using these parameter values, maximum-height squat jumping was used as the example task to evaluate the computational cost of task optimization for a skeletal model driven by a Huxley-type cross-bridge model. The optimal solutions for the Huxley- and Hill-type muscle models were similar for all mechanical variables considered. Computational cost of the Huxley-type cross-bridge model was much higher than that of the Hill-type model. Compared to the Hill-type model, the number of state variables per muscle was large (2 vs about 18,000), the integration step size had to be about 100 times smaller, and the computational cost per integration step was about 100 times higher.

Comparing many ways of measuring and analyzing reaction times reveals that the chosen method influences both the judged reaction time and, more importantly, conclusions about how the reaction time depends on the circumstances under study. The task was to lift one's finger in response to a tone. The response amplitude was either constrained or not. Constraining the amplitude made the response less vigorous. When the response was less vigorous it took longer to move far enough to release a switch or exceed the elasticity of the finger pulp. Although using a micro-switch would have made the reaction time appear to be longer for the constrained movement, reaction times determined in the most reliable ways were not systematically longer for the constrained movement. The most reliable method is to use extrapolation of the change in the average force that the finger exerts on the surface to estimate the reaction time.

Recently it has been shown that rewarded variability can be used to adapt visuomotor behavior. However, its relevance seems limited because adaptation to binary rewards has been demonstrated only when the same movement is repeated throughout the experiment. We therefore investigated whether the adaptation is action-specific and whether the amount of exploration depends on spatial complexity. Participants pointed to 3-D visual targets without seeing their hand and could use only binary reward feedback to adapt their movements. We varied the number of target positions and the number of dimensions the feedback was based on. Because the feedback was based on a 5-cm rightward shifted hand position, adaptation was needed for good performance. The participants started naïve to the perturbation. If actions were made toward a single target position and the feedback was based on the lateral component of their response only, participants adapted completely within 200 trials. Having more than 1 target position or more than 1 dimension of performance resulted in considerably less adaptation but did not affect the exploration. Thus, reward-based adaptation can generalize across actions but is reduced by spatial complexity, whereas exploration is not affected by spatial complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Anxiety disorders affect approximately one third of people during their lifetimes and are the ninth leading cause of global disability. Current treatments focus on therapy and pharmacological. However, therapy is costly and pharmacological interventions often have undesirable side-effects. Healthy people also regularly suffer periods of anxiety. Therefore, a non-pharmacological, intuitive, home intervention would be complementary to other treatments and beneficial for non-clinical groups. Existing at-home anxiety aids, such as guided meditations, typically employ visual and/or audio stimuli to guide the user into a calmer state. However, the tactile sense has the potential to be a more natural modality to target in an anxiety-calming device. The tactile domain is relatively under-explored, but we suggest that there are manifold physiological and affective qualities of touch that lend it to the task. In this study we demonstrate that haptic technology can offer an enjoyable, effective and widely accessible alternative for easing state anxiety. We describe a novel huggable haptic interface that pneumatically simulates slow breathing. We discuss the development of this interface through a focus group evaluating five prototypes with embedded behaviours (`breathing’, `purring’, `heartbeat’ and `illumination'). Ratings indicated that the `breathing' prototype was most pleasant to interact with and participants described this prototype as `calming' and `soothing', reminding them of a person breathing. This prototype was developed into an ergonomic huggable cushion containing a pneumatic chamber powered by an external pump allowing the cushion to `breathe'. A mixed-design experiment (n=129) inducing anxiety through a group mathematics test found that the device was effective at reducing pre-test anxiety compared to a control (no intervention) condition and that this reduction in anxiety was indistinguishable from that of a guided meditation.Our findings highlight the efficacy of this interface, demonstrating that haptic technologies can be effective at easing anxiety. We suggest that the field should be explored in more depth to capture the nuances of different modalities in relation to specific situations and trait characteristics.

We aim to achieve intraoperative localization of an early-stage gastric tumor that cannot be visually detected during laparoscopic surgery. In this study, we developed and evaluated a pneumatic tactile ring, which is a clinically applicable tactile device to provide instantaneous feedback from a tactile sensor directly manipulated by a surgeon. It was designed to be worn on the finger of the manipulating hand and to present pressure to the finger pad. It is lightweight, cost-effective, disposable, and sterilizable. We also developed a compact pneumatic drive unit to control the pressure and investigated its fundamental performance. The bandwidth of the pressure control was at least 1.3 Hz with a controllable range of up to 79.7 kPa. Moreover, a psychophysical experiment was performed to obtain the Weber ratio of the pressure and evaluate the effectiveness of the instantaneous tactile feedback of the sensor output through the tactile ring. The Weber ratio was 0.40 at the reference pressure of 22.7 kPa. The provided tactile feedback significantly reduced the absolute localization error and increased participants' confidence in their answers. It was shown that the tactile feedback through the ring is effective in laparoscopic tumor localization.

Mechanical power output is a key performance-determining variable in many cyclic sports. In rowing, instantaneous power output is commonly determined as the dot product of handle force moment and oar angular velocity. The aim of this study was to show that this commonly used proxy is theoretically flawed and to provide an indication of the magnitude of the error. To obtain a consistent dataset, simulations were performed using a previously proposed forward dynamical model. Inputs were previously recorded rower kinematics and horizontal oar angle, at 20 and 32 strokes∙min−1. From simulation outputs, true power output and power output according to the common proxy were calculated. The error when using the common proxy was quantified as the difference between the average power output according to the proxy and the true average power output (P̅residual), and as the ratio of this difference to the true average power output (ratiores./rower). At stroke rate 20, P̅residual was 27.4 W and ratiores./rower was 0.143; at stroke rate 32, P̅residual was 44.3 W and ratiores./rower was 0.142. Power output in rowing appears to be underestimated when calculated according to the common proxy. Simulations suggest this error to be at least 10% of the true power output.

Background Previous research has shown that the mechanics of walking on a treadmill is similar to walking overground. However it might be true that the energetics of walking is not similar between overground and treadmill, especially for older adults. We hypothesized that a lack of or inadequate familiarization on a treadmill would increase the Metabolic Cost of Transport (MCoT) in older adults due to increased levels of anxiety and the novelty of the locomotor task. Methods 10 healthy elderly (5 males and 5 females, mean age of 75.3 SD(6.3) years) were recruited and they walked first at their overground Preferred Walking Speed (PWS) for 8 min to reach a steady state of oxygen consumption in the morning. After that the same speed was imposed on a dual-belt treadmill and they walked for 15 min to properly familiarize themselves with the treadmill. This was called the familiarization session (Session 1). In the afternoon they repeated both the overground and treadmill walking again in the same order and with the same protocol. This session was called the post-familiarization session (Session 2). Results The group average of the overground PWS was 1.28 SD(0.11) m/s (4.61 SD(0.40) km/hr). During the familiarization session, the group average of the Gross Cost of Transport (GCoT) was 3.47 SD(0.35) J/kg/m while walking overground and 4 SD(0.65) J/kg/m while walking on a treadmill. The Net Cost of Transport (NCoT) was 2.64 SD(0.37) J/kg/m while walking overground and 3.14 SD(0.64) J/kg/m while walking on a treadmill. During the post-familiarization session, the group average of the GCoT was 3.84 SD(0.35) J/kg/m while walking overground and 3.94 SD(0.67) J/kg/m while walking on a treadmill. The NCoT was 2.76 SD(0.39) J/kg/m while walking overground and 2.90 SD(0.68) J/kg/m while walking on a treadmill. Both the GCoT and NCoT were statistically significantly higher on a treadmill than overground during the familiarization session. This elevation was not present during the post-familiarization session. There were also no statistically significant differences in the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) between before walking overground and before walking on a treadmill in either the familiarization or the post-familiarization session. Discussion and Conclusion This shows that the energetics of walking can be different for even healthy elderly on a treadmill if they are not or inadequately familiarized to it. This underlines the importance of adequate familiarization to treadmill walking for elderly in trying to understand the MCoT in this population.

For a valid determination of a rower’s mechanical power output, the anterior–posterior (AP) acceleration of a rower’s centre of mass (CoM) is required. The current study was designed to evaluate the accuracy of the determination of this acceleration using a full-body inertial measurement units (IMUs) suit in combination with a mass distribution model. Three methods were evaluated. In the first two methods, IMU data were combined with either a subject-specific mass distribution or a standard mass distribution model for athletes. In the third method, a rower’s AP CoM acceleration was estimated using a single IMU placed at the pelvis. Experienced rowers rowed on an ergometer that was placed on two force plates, while wearing a full-body IMUs suit. Correspondence values between AP CoM acceleration based on IMU data (the three methods) and AP CoM acceleration obtained from force plate data (reference) were calculated. Good correspondence was found between the reference AP CoM acceleration and the AP CoM accelerations determined using IMU data in combination with the subject-specific mass model and the standard mass model (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC] > 0.988 and normalized root mean square errors [nRMSE] 3.81%). Correspondence was lower for the AP CoM accelerations determined using a single pelvis IMU (0.877 < ICC < 0.960 and 6.11% < nRMSE < 13.61%). Based on these results, we recommend determining a rower’s AP CoM acceleration using IMUs in combination with the standard mass model. Finally, we conclude that accurate determination of a rower’s AP CoM acceleration is not possible on the basis of the pelvis acceleration only.

The increased reliance on electronic devices such as smartphones in our everyday life exposes us to various delays between our actions and their consequences. Whereas it is known that people can adapt to such delays, the mechanisms underlying such adaptation remain unclear. To better understand these mechanisms, the current study explored the role of eye movements in interception with delayed visual feedback. In two experiments, eye movements were recorded as participants tried to intercept a moving target with their unseen finger while receiving delayed visual feedback about their own movement. In Experiment 1, the target randomly moved in one of two different directions at one of two different velocities. The delay between the participant’s finger movement and movement of the cursor that provided feedback about the finger movements was gradually increased. Despite the delay, participants followed the target with their gaze. They were quite successful at hitting the target with the cursor. Thus, they moved their finger to a position that was ahead of where they were looking. Removing the feedback showed that participants had adapted to the delay. In Experiment 2, the target always moved in the same direction and at the same velocity, while the cursor’s delay varied across trials. Participants still always directed their gaze at the target. They adjusted their movement to the delay on each trial, often succeeding to intercept the target with the cursor. Since their gaze was always directed at the target, and they could not know the delay until the cursor started moving, participants must have been using peripheral vision of the delayed cursor to guide it to the target. Thus, people deal with delays by directing their gaze at the target and using both experience from previous trials (Experiment 1) and peripheral visual information (Experiment 2) to guide their finger in a way that will make the cursor hit the target.

A miniature hair clip set-up presented to the first author gave inspiration for this study. After a number of studies investigating what is haptically perceived as parallel on horizontal, frontoparallel or midsagittal planes, the present study focusses on what is felt as parallel behind your head. The results show convincingly that also in this condition physically parallel is not the same as haptically parallel. Moreover, the deviations are large, idiosyncratic and in a direction predicted by assuming a biasing influence of an egocentric reference frame.

BACKGROUND: Regular treatments of Meniere's disease (MD) vary largely, and no single satisfactory treatment exists. A complementary treatment popular among Dutch and Belgian patients involves eyeglasses with weak asymmetric base-in prisms, with a perceived high success rate. An explanatory mechanism is, however, lacking. OBJECTIVE: To speculate on a working mechanism explaining an effectiveness of weak asymmetric base-in prims in MD, based on available knowledge. METHODS: After describing the way these prisms are prescribed using a walking test and its effect reported on, we give an explanation of its underlying mechanism, based on the literature. RESULTS: The presumed effect can be explained by considering the typical star-like walking pattern in MD, induced by a drifting after-image comparable to the oculogyral illusion. Weak asymmetric base-in prisms can furthermore eliminate the conflict between a net vestibular angular velocity bias in the efferent signal controlling the VOR, and a net re-afferent ocular signal. CONCLUSIONS: The positive findings with these glasses reported on, the fact that the treatment itself is simple, low-cost, and socially acceptable, and the fact that an explanation is at hand, speak in favour of elaborating further on this treatment. © 2017 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

When reaching towards an object while standing, one's hand responds very quickly to visual perturbations such as the target being displaced or the background moving. Such responses require postural adjustments. When the background moves, its motion might be attributed to self-motion in a stable world, and thereby induce compensatory postural adjustments that affect the hand. The changes in posture associated with a given hand movement response may, therefore, be different for the two types of perturbations. To see whether they are, we asked standing participants to move their hand in the sagittal direction away from their body to targets displayed on a horizontal screen in front of them. The target displacements and background motion were in the lateral direction. We found hand movement responses that were in line with earlier reports, with a latency that was slightly shorter for target displacements than for background motion, and that was independent of target displacement size or background motion speed. The trunk responded to both perturbations with a modest lateral sway. The two main findings were that the upper trunk responded even before the hand did so and that the head responded to background motion but hardly responded to target displacements. These findings suggest that postural adjustments associated with adjusting the hand movement precede the actual adjustments to the movement of the hand, while at the same time, participants try to keep their head stable on the basis of visual information. ispartof: EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN RESEARCH vol:236 issue:6 pages:1573-1581 ispartof: location:Germany status: published

It has been hypothesised that our actions are less susceptible to visual illusions than our perceptual judgements because similar information is processed for perception and action in separate pathways. We test this hypothesis for subjects intercepting a moving object that appears to move at a different speed than its true speed due to an illusion. The object was a moving Gabor patch: a sinusoidal grating of which the luminance contrast is modulated by a two-dimensional Gaussian. We manipulated the patch's apparent speed by moving the grating relative to the Gaussian. We used separate two-interval forced choice discrimination tasks to determine how moving the grating influenced ten people's judgements of the object's position and velocity while they were fixating. Based on their perceptual judgements, and knowing that our ability to correct for errors that arise from relying on incorrect judgements are limited by a sensorimotor delay of about 100 msec, we predicted the extent to which subjects would tap ahead of or behind similar targets when trying to intercept them at the fixation location. The predicted errors closely matched the actual errors that subjects made when trying to intercept the targets. This finding does not support the two visual streams hypothesis. The results are consistent with the idea that the extent to which an illusion influences an action tells us something about the extent to which the action relies on the percept in question.

Older individuals seem to find it more difficult to ignore inaccurate sensory cues than younger individuals. We examined whether this could be quantified using an interception task. Twenty healthy young adults (age 18–34) and twenty-four healthy older adults (age 60–82) were asked to tap on discs that were moving downwards on a screen with their finger. Moving the background to the left made the discs appear to move more to the right. Moving the background to the right made them appear to move more to the left. The discs disappeared before the finger reached the screen, so participants had to anticipate how the target would continue to move. We examined how misjudging the disc’s motion when the background moves influenced tapping. Participants received veridical feedback about their performance, so their sensitivity to the illusory motion indicates to what extent they could ignore the task-irrelevant visual information. We expected older adults to be more sensitive to the illusion than younger adults. To investigate whether sensorimotor or cognitive load would increase this sensitivity, we also asked participants to do the task while standing on foam or counting tones. Background motion influenced older adults more than younger adults. The secondary tasks did not increase the background’s influence. Older adults might be more sensitive to the moving background because they find it more difficult to ignore irrelevant sensory information in general, but they may rely more on vision because they have less reliable proprioceptive and vestibular information.

Our interaction with objects is facilitated by the availability of visual feedback. Here, we investigate how and when visual feedback affects the way we grasp an object. Based on the main views on grasping (reach-and-grasp and double-pointing views), we designed four experiments to test: (1) whether the availability of visual feedback influences the digits independently, and (2) whether the absence of visual feedback affects the initial part of the movement. Our results show that occluding (part of) the hand’s movement path influences the movement trajectory from the beginning. Thus, people consider the available feedback when planning their movements. The influence of the visual feedback depends on which digit is occluded, but its effect is not restricted to the occluded digit. Our findings indicate that the control mechanisms are more complex than those suggested by current views on grasping.

Contains fulltext : 191305.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Walking is one of the preferred exercises among elderly, but could a prolonged walking increase gait variability, a risk factor for a fall in the elderly? Here we determine whether 30 min of treadmill walking increases coefficient of variation of gait in elderly. Because gait responses to exercise depend on fitness level, we included 15 sedentary and 15 active elderly. Sedentary participants preferred a lower gait speed and made smaller steps than the actives. Step length coefficient of variation decreased ~16.9% by the end of the exercise in both the groups. Stride length coefficient of variation decreased ~9% after 10 minutes of walking, and sedentary elderly showed a slightly larger step width coefficient of variation (~2%) at 10 min than active elderly. Active elderly showed higher walk ratio (step length/cadence) than sedentary in all times of walking, but the times did not differ in both the groups. In conclusion, treadmill gait kinematics differ between sedentary and active elderly, but changes over time are similar in sedentary and active elderly. As a practical implication, 30 min of walking might be a good strategy of exercise for elderly, independently of the fitness level, because it did not increase variability in step and stride kinematics, which is considered a risk of fall in this population.

Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) is a well-known sensation in virtual environments and simulators, typically characterized by a variety of symptoms such as pallor, sweating, dizziness, fatigue, and/or nausea. Numerous methods to reduce VIMS have been previously introduced; however, a reliable countermeasure is still missing. In the present study, the effect of airflow and seat vibration to alleviate VIMS was investigated. Eighty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups (airflow, vibration, combined airflow and vibration, and control) and then exposed to a 15 min long video of a bicycle ride shot from first-person view. VIMS was measured using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS) and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Results showed that the exposure of airflow significantly reduced VIMS, whereas the presence of seat vibration, in contrast, did not have an impact on VIMS. Additionally, we found that females reported higher FMS scores than males, however, this sex difference was not found in the SSQ scores. Our findings demonstrate that airflow can be an effective and easy-to-apply technique to reduce VIMS in virtual environments and simulators, while vibration applied to the seat is not a successful method.

Background:In negotiating stairs, low foot clearance increases the risk of tripping and a fall. Foot clearance may be related to physical fitness, which differs between active and sedentary participants, and be acutely affected by exercise. Impaired stair negotiation could be an acute response to exercise. Here we determined acute changes in foot clearances during stair walking in sedentary (n = 15) and physically active older adults (n = 15) after prolonged exercise.Methods:Kinematic data were acquired during negotiation with a 3-steps staircase while participants walked at preferred speed, before and after 30 min walking at preferred speed and using a treadmill. Foot clearances were compared before and after exercise and between the groups.Results:Sedentary older adults presented larger (0.5 cm for lead and 2 cm for trail leg) toe clearances in ascent, smaller (0.7 cm) heel clearance in the leading foot in descent, and larger (1 cm) heel clearance in the trailing foot in descent than physically active.Conclusion:Sedentary older adults negotiate stairs in a slightly different way than active older adults, and 30 min walking at preferred speed does not affect clearance in stair negotiation.

Two different ways to code a goal-directed movement have been proposed in the literature: vector coding and position coding. Assuming that the code is fine-tuned if a movement is immediately repeated, one can predict that repeating movements to the same endpoint will increase precision if movements are coded in terms of the position of the endpoint. Repeating the same movement vector at slightly different positions will increase precision if movements are coded in terms of vectors. Following this reasoning, Hudson and Landy (J Neurophys 108(10):2708–2716, 2012) found evidence for both types of coding when participants moved their hand over a table while the target and feedback were provided on a vertical screen. Do we also see evidence for both types of coding if participants repeat movements within a more natural visuo-motor mapping? To find out, we repeated the study of Hudson and Landy (J Neurophys 108(10):2708–2716, 2012), but our participants made movements directly to the targets. We compared the same movements embedded in blocks of repetitions of endpoints and blocks of repetitions of movement vectors. Within blocks, the movements were presented in a random order. We found no benefit of repeating either a position or a vector. We subsequently repeated the experiment with a similar mapping between movements and images to those used by Hudson and Landy and found that participants only clearly benefit from repeating a position. We conclude that repeating a position is particularly useful when dealing with unusual visuo-motor mappings.

The objectives of this study were 1) to probe the effects of visual motion adaptation on early visual and V5/MT cortical excitability and 2) to investigate whether changes in cortical excitability following visual motion adaptation are related to the degree of visual dependency, i.e., an overreliance on visual cues compared with vestibular or proprioceptive cues. Participants were exposed to a roll motion visual stimulus before, during, and after visual motion adaptation. At these stages, 20 transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses at phosphene threshold values were applied over early visual and V5/MT cortical areas from which the probability of eliciting a phosphene was calculated. Before and after adaptation, participants aligned the subjective visual vertical in front of the roll motion stimulus as a marker of visual dependency. During adaptation, early visual cortex excitability decreased whereas V5/MT excitability increased. After adaptation, both early visual and V5/MT excitability were increased. The roll motion-induced tilt of the subjective visual vertical (visual dependence) was not influenced by visual motion adaptation and did not correlate with phosphene threshold or visual cortex excitability. We conclude that early visual and V5/MT cortical excitability is differentially affected by visual motion adaptation. Furthermore, excitability in the early or late visual cortex is not associated with an increase in visual reliance during spatial orientation. Our findings complement earlier studies that have probed visual cortical excitability following motion adaptation and highlight the differential role of the early visual cortex and V5/MT in visual motion processing. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We examined the influence of visual motion adaptation on visual cortex excitability and found a differential effect in V1/V2 compared with V5/MT. Changes in visual excitability following motion adaptation were not related to the degree of an individual's visual dependency.

Fascicle length of m. vastus lateralis in cyclists has been shown to correlate positively with peak sprint cycling power normalized for lean body mass. We investigated whether vasti morphology affects sprint cycling power via force-length and force-velocity relationships. We simulated isokinetic sprint cycling at pedaling rates ranging from 40 to 150 rpm with a forward dynamic model of the human musculoskeletal system actuated by eight leg muscles. Input of the model was muscle stimulation over time, which was optimized to maximize the average power output over a pedal cycle. This was done for a reference model and for models in which the vasti had equal volume but different morphology. It was found that models with longer muscle fibers but a reduced physiological cross-sectional area of the vasti produced a higher sprint cycling power. This was partly explained by better alignment of the peak power-pedaling rate curve of the vasti with the corresponding curves of the other leg muscles. The highest sprint cycling power was achieved in a model in which the increase in muscle fiber length of the vasti was accompanied by a concomitant shift in optimum knee angle. It was concluded that muscle mechanics can partly explain the positive correlations between fascicle length of m. vastus lateralis and normalized peak sprint cycling power. It should be investigated whether muscle fiber length of the vasti and optimum knee angle are suitable training targets for athletes who want to concurrently improve their sprint and endurance cycling performance. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We simulated isokinetic sprint cycling at pedaling rates ranging from 40 to 150 rpm with a forward dynamic model of the human musculoskeletal system actuated by eight leg muscles. We selectively modified vasti morphology: we lengthened the muscle fibers and reduced the physiological cross-sectional area. The modified model was able to produce a higher sprint cycling power.

The wide diversity of articles in this issue reveals an explosion of evidence for the mechanisms of prediction in the visual system. When thought of as visual priors, predictive mechanisms can be seen as tightly interwoven with incoming sensory data. Prediction is thus a fundamental and essential aspect not only of visual perception but of the actions that are guided by perception.

Trunk motion is related to the performance and risk of injuries during dynamic sports motions. Optical motion capture is traditionally used to measure trunk motion during dynamic sports motions, but these systems are typically constrained to a laboratory environment. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) might provide a suitable alternative for measuring the trunk orientation during dynamic sports motions. The objective of the present study was to assess the accuracy of the three-dimensional trunk orientation measured using IMUs during dynamic sports motions and isolated anatomical trunk motions. The motions were recorded with two IMUs and an optical motion capture system (gold standard). Ten participants performed a total of 71 sports motions (19 golf swings, 15 one-handed ball throws, 19 tennis serves, and 18 baseball swings) and 125 anatomical trunk motions (42, 41, and 42 trials of lateral flexion, axial rotation, and flexion/extension, respectively). The root-mean-square differences between the IMU- and optical motion capture-based trunk angles were less than 5 degrees, and the similarity between the methods was on average across all trials “very good” to “excellent” (R ≥ 0.85; R2 ≥ 0.80). Across the dynamic sports motions, even higher measures of similarity were found (R ≥ 0.90; R2 ≥ 0.82). When aligned to the relevant segment, the current IMUs are a promising alternative to optical motion capture and previous presented IMU-based systems for the field-based measurement of the three-dimensional trunk orientation during dynamic sports motions and the anatomical trunk motions.

Purpose. Many falls in older people occur after tripping or slipping, mainly due to unsuccessful vertical clearances or horizontal distances. A first fall may be explained by several factors related to aging and can be a trigger to subsequent falls. It is unclear if a history of fall changes the kinematics of obstacle crossing, increasing the risk of trips. Here, we determined whether older women reporting a fall history showed different spatial-temporal kinematic parameters during obstacle crossing than non-fallers. In addition, we investigated the presence of asymmetries between the preferred and non-preferred lower limb during obstacle crossing in fallers and non-fallers. Methods. This cross-sectional study recruited older women with a history of fall (n = 10) and without falls (n = 10). They had their kinematic parameters evaluated when walking at self-selected speed along an 8-m walkway, crossing an obstacle positioned in the middle of the walkway, with both preferred and non-preferred limb as the lead limb. The groups were compared, and effects of lower limb preference were also determined in both groups. Results. No main effects of group were observed regarding the kinematic variables. An effect of leg preference was found for post-obstacle horizontal distance, which was greater for the preferred limb in both groups. Conclusions. In conclusion, the kinematics of gait with obstacle crossing does not differentiate between older women with or without a history of recent fall.

Predictive eye movements targeted toward the direction of ball bounce are a feature of gaze behavior when intercepting a target soon after it has bounced. However, there is conjecture over the exact location toward which these predictive eye movements are directed, and whether gaze during this period is moving or instead "lies in wait" for the ball to arrive. Therefore, the aim of this study was to further examine the location toward which predictive eye movements are made when hitting a bouncing ball. We tracked the eye and head movements of 23 novice participants who attempted to hit approaching tennis balls in a virtual environment. The balls differed in time from bounce to contact (300, 550, and 800 ms). Results revealed that participants made predictive saccades shortly before the ball bounced in two-thirds of all trials. These saccades were directed several degrees above the position at which the ball bounced, rather than toward the position at which it bounced or toward a position the ball would occupy shortly after the bounce. After the saccade, a separation of roles for the eyes and head ensured that gaze continued to change so that it was as close as possible to the ball soon after bounce. Smooth head movements were responsible for the immediate and ongoing changes in gaze to align it with the ball in the lateral direction, while eye movements realigned gaze with the ball in the vertical direction from approximately 100 ms after the ball changed its direction of motion after bounce. We conclude that predictive saccades direct gaze above the location at which the ball will bounce, presumably in order to facilitate ball tracking after the bounce.

The dive start is an important component of competitive swimming, especially at shorter race distances. Previous research has suggested that start performance depends on kinematic variables pertaining to the swimmer at water entry, notably the distance from the block, the horizontal velocity of the centre of mass and the angle between body and water surface. However, the combined and relative contributions of these variables to start performance remain to be determined. The aim of the present study was therefore to develop a model to predict start performance (time from take-off to reaching the 15-m line) from a set of kinematic variables that collectively define the swimmer’s entry state. To obtain an appropriate database for this purpose, fifteen well-trained, (sub-)elite swimmers performed dive starts under different instructions intended to induce substantial variation in entry state. Kinematic data were extracted from video recordings of these starts, optimised and analysed statistically. A mixed effects analysis of the relation between entry state and start performance was conducted, which revealed a significant and robust dependence of start performance on entry state (χ2(3) = 88, p < .001), explaining 86.1% of the variance. Start time was reduced by 0.6 s (p < .001) when the horizontal displacement at water entry was 1 m further, by 0.3 s (p < .001) when the horizontal velocity of the centre of mass was 1 m/s higher, and by 0.5 s (p < .01) when the entry angle was 1 radian flatter. The robustness of the analysis was confirmed by a similar mixed effects analysis of the relation between entry state and time to the 5-m line. In conclusion, dive start performance can be predicted to a considerable extent from the swimmer’s state at water entry. The implications of those findings for studying and improving block phase kinetics are discussed.

With the recent explosive developments in sensoring capabilities and ubiquitous computing in road cycling, large quantities of detailed data about performance are becoming available. In this paper, we will demonstrate that this rich data in cycling offers several non-trivial data science challenges. The primary task that we focus on is a regression task: given a collection of results in previous races of a specific rider, predict the performance in a future race solely based on the characteristics of said rider and the stage profile. To make these predictions, we have developed a predictive pipeline that consists of three consecutive rider-specific models. First, we transform the distance-altitude profile into a time profile, by using a climb-descent model that describes the relationship between the speed of the cyclist and the slope of the terrain. Second, we introduce an effective profile that includes the rider-specific physiological capabilities. Third, we predict the performance based on the characteristics of the effective profile, by using a model constructed from the historical records of our cyclist. To demonstrate the relevance of this work, we show that for a professional cycling team, important information for making tactical decisions can be obtained from our modeling approach.

Correction on the basis of previous errors is paramount to sensorimotor learning. While corrections of spatial errors have been studied extensively, little is known about corrections of previous temporal errors. We tackled this problem in different conditions involving arm movements (AM), saccadic eye movements (SM) or button presses (BP). The task was to intercept a moving target at a designated zone (i. e. no spatial error) either with the hand sliding a pen on a graphics tablet (AM), a saccade (SM) or a button press (BP) that released a cursor moving ballistically for a fixed time of 330 ms. The dependency of the final temporal error on action onset varied from "low" in AM (due to possible online corrections) to "very high" in the other conditions (i.e. open loop). The lag-1 cross-correlation between action onset and the previous temporal error were close to zero in all conditions suggesting that people minimized temporal variability of the final errors across trials. Interestingly, in conditions SM and BP, action onset did not depend on the previous temporal error. However, this dependency was clearly modulated by the movement time in the AM condition: faster movements depended less on the previous actual temporal error. An analysis using a Kalman filter confirmed that people in SM, BP and AM involving fast movements used the prediction error (i.e. intended action onset minus actual action onset) for next trial correction rather than the final target error. A closer look at the AM condition revealed that both error signals were used and that the contribution of each signal follows different patterns with movement time: as movement progresses the reliance on the prediction error decreases non-linearly and that on the final error increases linearly.