Eye-hand-coordination: a model for computing reaction times in a visually guided reach task

Abstract

A model is described which provides a simple algorithm to compute the reaction times of saccadic eye movements and reach movements aimed at a single visual target. It is assumed, that the two movements are prepared in parallel and initiated independently unless the preparation of the saccade for some reason takes longer than the preparation of the reach movement. In the latter case the final command to execute the reach movement is synchronized with that to execute the eye movement and therefore the corresponding reaction times are highly correlated in a one-to-one relationship. Random variables are used to predict sets of data that are directly comparable with the experimental results. The algorithm includes the effects of daily practice (learning). The structure of the model and its computational results will be compared with the physiological data from monkey and man.