Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 4;11(5):e0154807.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154807. eCollection 2016.

Virtual Hand Feedback Reduces Reaction Time in an Interactive Finger Reaching Task

Johannes Brand  1   2 , Marco Piccirelli  3 , Marie-Claude Hepp-Reymond  1 , Manfred Morari  2 , Lars Michels  3   4 , Kynan Eng  1
Affiliations

Virtual Hand Feedback Reduces Reaction Time in an Interactive Finger Reaching Task

Johannes Brand et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Computer interaction via visually guided hand or finger movements is a ubiquitous part of daily computer usage in work or gaming. Surprisingly, however, little is known about the performance effects of using virtual limb representations versus simpler cursors. In this study 26 healthy right-handed adults performed cued index finger flexion-extension movements towards an on-screen target while wearing a data glove. They received each of four different types of real-time visual feedback: a simple circular cursor, a point light pattern indicating finger joint positions, a cartoon hand and a fully shaded virtual hand. We found that participants initiated the movements faster when receiving feedback in the form of a hand than when receiving circular cursor or point light feedback. This overall difference was robust for three out of four hand versus circle pairwise comparisons. The faster movement initiation for hand feedback was accompanied by a larger movement amplitude and a larger movement error. We suggest that the observed effect may be related to priming of hand information during action perception and execution affecting motor planning and execution. The results may have applications in the use of body representations in virtual reality applications.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Experimental setup, visual feedback and experimental conditions.
(A) Subject in the MR scanner wearing a data glove and grasping the tube with the right hand. Visual feedback provided via mirror projection from a monitor. (B) Visual feedback consisted of the starting position (light-blue circle), movement cursor (skin coloured circle) and target (red circle) on grey background. (C) cursor feedback, (D) point light feedback, (E) cartoon hand feedback, and (F) virtual hand feedback.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Reaction time and standard error of the four types of visual feedback.
Cursor (red), point light (green), cartoon hand (cyan), and virtual hand (violet) conditions. Asterisks illustrate significant differences between conditions (p < 0.05).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Blink rate and average duration of fixation for the four movement and the four observation conditions.
Mean and standard error of A number of blinks per trial and B duration of fixation. Cursor (red), point light (green), cartoon hand (cyan), and virtual hand (violet) visual feedback.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shadmehr R, Krakauer JW. A computational neuroanatomy for motor control. Experimental Brain Research. 2008. March;185(3):359–381. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18251019. 10.1007/s00221-008-1280-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Veilleux LN, Proteau L. Congruent visual and proprioceptive information results in a better encoding of initial hand position. Experimental brain research Experimentelle Hirnforschung Expérimentation cérébrale. 2011. October;214(2):215–24. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21837439. 10.1007/s00221-011-2822-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sober SJ, Sabes PN. Flexible strategies for sensory integration during motor planning. Nature neuroscience. 2005. April;8(4):490–497. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15793578. 10.1038/nn1427 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Peelen MV, Downing PE. The neural basis of visual body perception. Nature reviews Neuroscience. 2007. August;8(8):636–48. Available from: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v8/n8/full/nrn2195.html#B79. 10.1038/nrn2195 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kilner JM, Paulignan Y, Blakemore SJ, Cognitives S. An Interference Effect of Observed Biological Movement on Action. Current Biology. 2003. March;13(6):522–525. Available from: 10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00165-9. 10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00165-9 - DOI - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources