Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Cortex. 2021 May;138:253-265. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.02.010. Epub 2021 Feb 24.
Everyday tasks such as catching a ball appear effortless, but in fact require complex interactions and tight temporal coordination between the brain's visual and motor systems. What makes such interceptive actions particularly impressive is the capacity of the brain to account for temporal delays in the central nervous system-a limitation that can be mitigated by making predictions about the environment as well as one's own actions. Here, we wanted to assess how well human participants can plan an upcoming movement based on a dynamic, predictable stimulus that is not the target of action. A central stationary or rotating stimulus determined the probability that each of two potential targets would be the eventual target of a rapid reach-to-touch movement. We examined the extent to which reach movement trajectories convey internal predictions about the future state of dynamic probabilistic information conveyed by the rotating stimulus. We show that movement trajectories reflect the target probabilities determined at movement onset, suggesting that humans rapidly and accurately integrate visuospatial predictions and estimates of their own reaction times to effectively guide action.
日常任务，如接球，看似毫不费力，但实际上需要大脑的视觉和运动系统之间进行复杂的相互作用和紧密的时间协调。使这些拦截动作特别令人印象深刻的是，大脑能够解释中枢神经系统中的时间延迟——通过对环境以及自身动作做出预测，可以减轻这种限制。在这里，我们想评估人类参与者根据一个不是动作目标的动态、可预测的刺激，能在多大程度上计划即将到来的动作。一个中央静止或旋转的刺激决定了两个潜在目标中哪一个最终将成为快速触及触摸动作的目标的可能性。我们研究了运动轨迹在多大程度上传递了关于旋转刺激所传达的动态概率信息的未来状态的内部预测。我们表明，运动轨迹反映了运动开始时确定的目标概率，这表明人类能够快速准确地整合视觉空间预测和对自己反应时间的估计，从而有效地指导动作。
