Cesqui Benedetta, Mezzetti Maura, Lacquaniti Francesco, d'Avella Andrea
Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; Centre of Space Bio-medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
PLoS One. 2015 Mar 20;10(3):e0119445. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119445. eCollection 2015.
In ball sports, it is usually acknowledged that expert athletes track the ball more accurately than novices. However, there is also evidence that keeping the eyes on the ball is not always necessary for interception. Here we aimed at gaining new insights on the extent to which ocular pursuit performance is related to catching performance. To this end, we analyzed eye and head movements of nine subjects catching a ball projected by an actuated launching apparatus. Four different ball flight durations and two different ball arrival heights were tested and the quality of ocular pursuit was characterized by means of several timing and accuracy parameters. Catching performance differed across subjects and depended on ball flight characteristics. All subjects showed a similar sequence of eye movement events and a similar modulation of the timing of these events in relation to the characteristics of the ball trajectory. On a trial-by-trial basis there was a significant relationship only between pursuit duration and catching performance, confirming that keeping the eyes on the ball longer increases catching success probability. Ocular pursuit parameters values and their dependence on flight conditions as well as the eye and head contributions to gaze shift differed across subjects. However, the observed average individual ocular behavior and the eye-head coordination patterns were not directly related to the individual catching performance. These results suggest that several oculomotor strategies may be used to gather information on ball motion, and that factors unrelated to eye movements may underlie the observed differences in interceptive performance.
在球类运动中，人们通常认为专业运动员追踪球的能力比新手更准确。然而，也有证据表明，在进行拦截时，一直盯着球并非总是必要的。在此，我们旨在深入了解眼球追踪表现与接球表现之间的关联程度。为此，我们分析了9名受试者在接住由驱动发射装置投射出的球时的眼睛和头部运动。测试了四种不同的球飞行时长以及两种不同的球到达高度，并通过几个时间和准确性参数来表征眼球追踪的质量。接球表现因受试者而异，并且取决于球的飞行特性。所有受试者都表现出相似的眼球运动事件序列，以及这些事件的时间安排相对于球轨迹特征的相似调节。在逐个试验的基础上，仅追踪持续时间与接球表现之间存在显著关系，这证实了更长时间盯着球会增加接球成功的概率。不同受试者的眼球追踪参数值及其对飞行条件的依赖性，以及眼睛和头部对视线转移的贡献各不相同。然而，观察到的平均个体眼球行为和眼头协调模式与个体接球表现并无直接关联。这些结果表明，可能会采用多种眼动策略来收集有关球运动的信息，并且与眼球运动无关的因素可能是观察到的拦截表现差异的潜在原因。
