Visual Feedback Processing of the Limb Involves Two Distinct Phases

Abstract

Muscle responses to mechanical disturbances exhibit two distinct phases: a response starting at ϳ20 ms that is fairly stereotyped, and a response starting at ϳ60 ms modulated by many behavioral contexts including goal-redundancy and environmental obstacles. Muscle responses to disturbances of visual feedback of the hand arise within ϳ90 ms. However, little is known whether these muscle responses are sensitive to behavioral contexts. We had 49 human participants (27 male) execute goal-directed reaches with visual feedback of their hand presented as a cursor. On random trials, the cursor jumped laterally to the reach direction, and thus, required a correction to attain the goal. The first experiment demonstrated that the response amplitude starting at 90 ms scaled with jump magnitude, but only for jumps Ͻ2 cm. For larger jumps, the duration of the muscle response scaled with the jump size starting after 120 ms. The second experiment demonstrated that the early response was sensitive to goal redundancy as wider targets evoked a smaller corrective response. The third experiment demonstrated that the early response did not consider the presence of obstacles, as this response routinely drove participants directly to the goal even though this path was blocked by an obstacle. Instead, the appropriate muscle response to navigate around the obstacle started after 120 ms. Our findings highlight that visual feedback of the limb involves two distinct phases: a response starting at 90 ms with limited sensitivity to jump magnitude and sensitive to goal-redundancy, and a response starting at 120 ms with increased sensitivity to jump magnitude and environmental factors.

Feedback Adaptation to Unpredictable Force Fields in 250 ms

“…Besides the potential contribution of muscle afferent feedback, the fact that changes in feedback responses were detected within 250ms leaves enough time to engage task-related feedback responses mediated by touch (Pruszynski et al, 2016;Crevecoeur et al, 2017), and vision, which participates in goal-directed feedback control (Franklin and Wolpert, 2008;Scott, 2016), as well as in rapid changes in navigation strategies (Cross et al, 2019). Characterizing the specific contribution of each sensory system constitutes an exciting challenge for future work.…”

Time-to-Target Simplifies Optimal Control of Visuomotor Feedback Responses

“…Indeed, several studies have suggested that visuomotor feedback is controlled via a pathway through the colliculus (Reynolds and Day (2012); Gu et al (2018); Corneil et al (2004)). Furthermore, it has been suggested that visuomotor feedback responses involve two different phases that are behaviourally different Cross et al (2019). This might reflect two different pathways, the early through the colliculus and the later through cortex.…”

“…From intercepting a basketball pass between opponents to catching a vase accidentally knocked off the shelf -visuomotor feedback responses play a familiar role in human motor behaviour. Previous research has extensively analysed these responses in human reaching movements (Day and Lyon (2000); Reichenbach et al (2014); de Brouwer et al (2017de Brouwer et al ( , 2018; Saunders and Knill (2003); Saunders (2004); Saunders and Knill (2005); Sarlegna et al (2003); Knill et al (2011)), and showed an interesting combination of task-dependent variability on the timescale of a single movement (Dimitriou et al (2013); Franklin et al (2014Franklin et al ( , 2017; Cross et al (2019)), as well as sub-voluntary feedback onset times (Prablanc and Martin (1992); Day and Lyon (2000); Franklin and Wolpert (2008); Zhang et al (2018); Oostwoud Wijdenes et al…”

Feedback adaptation to unpredictable force fields in 250ms

“…Hence, the fastest 521 adjustments to state feedback control could be achieved by tuning the long--latency feedback loop. 522 Besides the potential contribution of muscle afferent feedback, the fact that changes in 523 feedback responses were detected within 250ms leaves enough time to engage task--related 524 feedback responses mediated by touch Crevecoeur et al, 2017), and vision, 525 which participates in goal--directed feedback control (Franklin and Wolpert, 2008;Scott, 2016), as 526 well as in rapid changes in navigation strategies (Cross et al, 2019). Characterizing the specific 527 contribution of each sensory system constitutes an exciting challenge for future work.…”