Reaching for known unknowns: Rapid reach decisions accurately reflect the future state of dynamic probabilistic information

Abstract

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.

In the hands of the beholder: Wearing a COVID-19 mask is associated with its attractiveness

“…The purpose of this study was to find ecological support for the well-established laboratory finding that merely acting on or using a novel object can increase its emotional appeal (Fenske & Raymond, 2006;Hayes et al, 2008;Peck & Shu, 2009;Schonberg et al, 2014;Streicher & Estes, 2015;Wispinski et al, 2020). This process, however, is potentially attenuated with prolonged use, as humans tend to show decline in preferences for familiar objects (Biederman & Vessel, 2006;Isik & Vessel, 2019), making ecological studies on the relationship between use and emotional appraisal challenging.…”

“…There is a large literature documenting that visual attention is involuntarily drawn to images of objects that we find emotionally rewarding (Anderson, 2016;Chelazzi et al, 2013;Failing & Theeuwes, 2018). At the same time, there is a growing literature documenting that the arrow of influence runs in the other direction too: Merely attending to or acting on an object increases its emotional salience (Fenske & Raymond, 2006;Hayes et al, 2008;Peck & Shu, 2009;Schonberg et al, 2014;Streicher & Estes, 2015;Wispinski et al, 2020), while ignoring an object to select another one reduces it (De Vito & Fenske, 2018;Fenske et al, 2004;Griffiths & Mitchell, 2008;Kiss et al, 2007;Raymond et al, 2005) even in preverbal infants (Silver et al, 2020).…”

Generating accurate 3D gaze vectors using synchronized eye tracking and motion capture

“…Motion capture (mo-cap) is a technique used to record human movement in 3D space [12] and, when combined and synchronized with eye tracking, offers a solution for automating real-world gaze analysis. Human movement science greatly benefits from this technology, as it allows for the quantification of movements during reach-to-grasp [3,34] or reach-to-point [24,23,31] behaviours. Additionally, mo-cap technology comes in many forms, including infrared-based or the burgeoning field of markerless-motion-capture [18], both of which are typically capable of integrating with eye tracking headsets.…”