Contribution of Vision and Proprioception to the Precision of Reaching Movements

Ren and colleagues (2006) found that saccades to visual targets became less accurate when somatosensory information about hand location was added, suggesting that saccades rely mainly on vision. We conducted two kinematic experiments to examine whether or not reaching movements would also show such strong reliance on vision. In Experiment 1, subjects used their dominant right hand to perform reaches, with or without a delay, to an external visual target or to their own left fingertip positioned either by the experimenter or by the participant. Unlike saccades, reaches became more accurate and precise when proprioceptive information was available. In Experiment 2, subjects reached toward external or bodily targets with differing amounts of visual information. Proprioception improved performance only when vision was limited. Our results indicate that reaching movements, unlike saccades, are improved rather than impaired by the addition of somatosensory information.

Grantor dc:publisher

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Year dc:date

2009

Author dc:creator

• Monaco, Simona <1978>

Contributors dc:contributor

• Galletti, Claudio

• BIO/09 Fisiologia

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

urn:nbn:it:unibo-1321
Monaco, Simona (2009) Contribution of Vision and Proprioception to the Precision of Reaching Movements, [Dissertation thesis], Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Dottorato di ricerca in Neurofisiologia <https://amsdottorato.unibo.it/view/dottorati/DOT281/>, 21 Ciclo.

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:amsdottorato.cib.unibo.it:1540