Representation of hand position prior to movement and motor variability

Abstract

Pointing accuracy of six human subjects was measured in two blocked conditions where the hand was either never visible (T: target only) or only visible in static position prior to movement onset (H+T: hand+target). It was shown in condition H+T that, viewing the hand prior to movement greatly decreased end-point variability compared with condition T. This effect was associated with a significant modification of the movement kinematics: the H+T condition induced a shortened acceleration phase with a corresponding lengthened deceleration phase, compared with the T condition. These results led us to the hypothesis that viewing the hand prior to movement onset allowed a decrease of pointing variability through a feedback process. This hypothesis was further tested by turning the target off during the deceleration phase of the movement at half peak velocity. It was shown that turning the target off had no effect upon the T condition but induced a significant increase of pointing variability in the H+T condition. This result suggests that vision of the static hand enhances the proprioceptive localization of the limb and allows for a better visual to kinesthesic feedback.