Lawrence Bonnie M, Gardella Andrew L
Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
Exp Brain Res. 2009 May;195(3):413-8. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-1804-7. Epub 2009 Apr 30.
Previously, we have shown, both in humans and monkeys, that the latencies of exogenously generated saccades decrease with an increase in the number of response alternatives (Lawrence et al. in J Vis 8:26, 1-7, 2008). Because this pattern of latencies was in the direction opposite that predicted by Hick (Q J Exp Psychol 4:11-26, 1952), we termed the effect an "anti-Hick's" effect. In contrast, previous research has shown that reach latencies increase with an increase in response alternatives (e.g., Wright et al. in Exp Brain Res 179:475-496, 2007). Given that there are known interactions between the saccade and reach systems, we examined whether the direction of the relationship between latencies and response alternatives differed when saccades and reaches are concomitantly executed. Interestingly, we found that the pattern of latencies nevertheless persisted in a visually guided saccade and reach task. These results place an important constraint on the anti-Hick's effect, suggesting not only that the effect is localized within the saccade system, but also that it is localized in the saccade system at a level in which saccade and reach signals do not interact.
此前，我们在人类和猴子身上均已表明，外源性产生的扫视潜伏期会随着反应选项数量的增加而缩短（劳伦斯等人，《视觉杂志》8:26，1 - 7，2008年）。由于这种潜伏期模式与希克所预测的方向相反（《实验心理学季刊》4:11 - 26，1952年），我们将这种效应称为“反希克效应”。相比之下，先前的研究表明，伸手潜伏期会随着反应选项数量的增加而延长（例如，赖特等人，《实验脑研究》179:475 - 496，2007年）。鉴于扫视系统和伸手系统之间存在已知的相互作用，我们研究了在同时执行扫视和伸手动作时，潜伏期与反应选项之间关系的方向是否会有所不同。有趣的是，我们发现在视觉引导的扫视和伸手任务中，潜伏期模式仍然存在。这些结果对反希克效应施加了重要限制，这不仅表明该效应局限于扫视系统内，还表明它在扫视系统中处于扫视信号和伸手信号不相互作用的层面。
