Rapid and Accumulated Modulation of Action-Effects on Action

Abstract

Auditory feedback to a keypress is used in many devices to facilitate the motor output. The timing of auditory feedback is known to have an impact on the motor output, yet it is not known if a keypress action can be modulated on-line by an auditory feedback or how quick an auditory feedback can influence an ongoing keypress. Furthermore, it is not clear if the prediction of auditory feedback already changes the early phase of a keypress action independent of sensory feedback, which would suggest that such prediction changes the motor plan. In the current study, participants pressed a touch-sensitive device with auditory feedback in a self-paced manner. The auditory feedback was given either after a short (60 msec) or long (160 msec) delay, and the delay was either predictable or not. Our results showed that the keypress peak force was modulated by the amount of auditory feedback delay even when the delay was unpredictable, thus demonstrating an on-line modulation effect. The latency of the on-line modulation was suggested to be as low as 70 msec, indicating a very fast sensory to motor mapping circuit in the brain. When the auditory feedback delay was predictable, a change in the very early phase of keypress motor output was found, suggesting that the prediction of sensory feedback is crucial to motor control. Therefore, even a simple keypress action contains rich motor dynamics, which depend on expected as well as on-line perceived sensory feedback.

The emergence of action-effect-related motor adaptation amidst outcome unpredictability.

“…The unexpected finding that force application patterns differed between tone-eliciting and silent pinches suggested that participants modulated the exerted force on the fly in response to the presence or absence of the tone. This result fits a similar finding presented in a recent study by Cao et al (2020), in which a comparable experimental design and device was used. The presence of on-the-fly adjustments prompted us to revise our analysis strategy, and instead of pooling actions regardless of their outcome, we compared actions with the same outcomes only to mitigate the effects of on-the-fly adjustments.…”

Binding of Task-Irrelevant Action Features and Auditory Action Effects

“…Because the presence of on-the-fly adjustments to force (i.e. that later parts of the participants’ pinch are modulated by a reaction to the onset of the elicited sound, Cao et al, 2020 ) cannot be excluded, especially in the case of longer pinches, we reasoned that adding an action effect to the probe-related pinch would reduce potential force differences between prime and probe-related actions. This last tone was the high- or low-pitched tone selected randomly.…”

“…We also rarely become aware of how many different movements we could perform to achieve the same desired outcome. Such interactions often lead to other, goal-irrelevant effects in the environment and in our body, which may nonetheless influence action control ( Cao et al, 2020 ; Horváth et al, 2018 ; Pfister, 2019 ). The human cognitive system is geared towards using any of these perceptual action effects for decision-making and action planning alike ( Wolpert et al, 2011 ).…”

Why motor imagery is not really motoric: towards a re-conceptualization in terms of effect-based action control

“…A central assumption is that the representations used for effect-based control of both simple and complex actions are organized in a hierarchical fashion, with higher level (distal) action goals at the top, and the required sequence of more proximal, body-related effects at the bottom, each robustly linked to the efferent/motor activities that would bring these effects about (e.g., Hommel et al, 2001, Hommel, 2009; for a recent review, see Moeller & Pfister, 2022). During execution, imaginistic control can then access-and modify-each of these more proximal action components to fulfill task requirements, such as making a less forceful button press than usual (Cao et al, 2020), varying the musical notes one is playing in a longer piece (e.g., Keller & Koch, 2008), or forming a more pronounced circular trajectory than usual during gesturing (e.g., Bach et al, 2010a). Moreover, during learning more complex action hierarchies can be built form the ground up from simpler elements and assembled into larger chunks (e.g., Moeller & Pfister, 2019).…”