Evaluating online control of goal‐directed arm movement while standing in virtual visual environment

Abstract

It has been shown that an inaccurate motor planning of a fast goal‐directed movement could be amended through an online comparison between the goal and the instantaneous representation of the (unseen) moving hand. The aim of this study was to test whether such an optimum processing was still efficient in a virtual visual environment (VE), by exploring the effect of immersion on the online visuomotor control of goal‐directed arm movement. Six subjects participated in the experiment, in which hand reaching toward either a stationary or a moving virtual visual target (double‐step paradigm) was executed in an upright posture. The analysis of the hand kinematics and postural adjustments showed an accurate control of movement and balance in both reaching conditions. This indicates that immersion does not affect the online control processes used by the CNS to adjust movement in interactive VE. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Can the Human Brain Predict the Consequences of Arm Movement Corrections When Transporting an Object? Hints from Grip Force Adjustments

“…4). Our conclusion is also consistent with a study suggesting that, when standing subjects reach for displaced tar- gets, postural adjustments counteract the effect of hand trajectory corrections (Martin et al, 2003). However, our results seem to conflict with data showing a slight alteration of the grip-load force coupling when subjects have to initiate arm movements as quickly as possible after the appearance of a target (Flanagan and Lolley, 2001).…”

An experimental study on the role of graphical information about hand movement when interacting with objects in virtual reality environments

“…As described in the Introduction, this can lead to various distortions in perception and degradation of motor performance. These problems in the presentation of feedback could lead to differences in the role of visual feedback for motor performance in virtual environments when compared to natural environments (Martin et al, 2003). For this reason, experiments have recently been conducted to assess the role of graphic feedback about one's own movement for the performance of simple tasks in virtual reality environments.…”

Reaching Within a Dynamic Virtual Environment

“…Studies have shown that both young and elderly healthy subjects are able to amend their ongoing movements in response to target displacement during a "double-step" paradigm which changes the spatial goal of the movement by unexpectedly changing the location of a visual target [1][2][3][4]. However, these movements have only been tested in stationary visual environments.…”