Biomedical subjects

Michael A Khan

Publications and source records attributed to Michael A Khan.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Inferring online and offline processing of visual feedback in target-directed movements from kinematic data.

Vision plays an important role in the planning and execution of target-directed aiming movements. In this review, we highlight the limitations that exist in detecting visual regulation of limb trajectories from traditional kinematic analyses such as the identification of discontinuities in velocity and acceleration. Alternative kinematic analyses that involve examining variability in limb trajectories to infer visual control processes are evaluated. The basic assumption underlying these methods is that noise exists in the neuromotor system that subsequently leads to variability in motor output. This leads to systematic relations in limb trajectory variability at different stages of the movement that are altered when trajectories are modified during movement execution. Hence, by examining the variability in limb trajectories and correlations of kinematic variables throughout movement for vision and no vision conditions, the contribution of visual feedback in the planning and control of movement can be determined.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

The contribution of peripheral and central vision in the control of movement amplitude.

Past research has revealed that central vision is more important than peripheral vision in controlling the amplitude of target-directed aiming movements. However, the extent to which central vision contributes to movement planning versus online control is unclear. Since participants usually fixate the target very early in the limb trajectory, the limb enters the central visual field during the late stages of movement. Hence, there may be insufficient time for central vision to be processed online to correct errors during movement execution. Instead, information from central vision may be processed offline and utilised as a form of knowledge of results, enhancing the programming of subsequent trials. In the present research, variability in limb trajectories was analysed to determine the extent to which peripheral and central vision is used to detect and correct errors during movement execution. Participants performed manual aiming movements of 450 ms under four different visual conditions: full vision, peripheral vision, central vision, no vision. The results revealed that participants utilised visual information from both the central and peripheral visual fields to adjust limb trajectories during movement execution. However, visual information from the central visual field was used more effectively to correct errors online compared to visual information from the peripheral visual field.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Programming strategies for rapid aiming movements under simple and choice reaction time conditions.

Increases in reaction time (RT) as a function of response complexity have been shown to differ between simple and choice RT tasks. Of interest in the present study was whether the influence of response complexity on RT depends on the extent to which movements are programmed in advance of movement initiation versus during execution (i.e., online). The task consisted of manual aiming movements to one or two targets (one- vs. two-element responses) under simple and choice RT conditions. The probe RT technique was employed to assess attention demands during RT and movement execution. Simple RT was greater for the two- than for the single-target responses but choice RT was not influenced by the number of elements. In both RT tasks, reaction times to the probe increased as a function of number of elements when the probe occurred during movement execution. The presence of the probe also caused an increase in aiming errors in the simple but not choice RT task. These findings indicated that online programming was occurring in both RT tasks. In the simple RT task, increased executive control mediated the integration between response elements through the utilization of visual feedback to facilitate the implementation of the second element.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Determinants of offline processing of visual information for the control of reaching movements.

The authors investigated the use of visual feedback as a form of knowledge of results (KR) for the control of rapid (200-250 ms) reaching movements in 40 participants. They compared endpoint accuracy and intraindividual variability of a full-vision group (FV) with those of no-vision groups provided with KR regarding (a) the endpoint in numerical form, (b) the endpoint in visual form, or (c) the endpoint and the trajectory in visual form (DEL). The FV group was more accurate and less variable than were the no-vision groups, and the analysis of limb trajectory variability indicated that their superior performance resulted primarily from better movement planning rather than from online visual processes. The FV group outperformed the DEL group even though both groups were obtaining the same amount of spatial visual information from every movement. That finding suggests that the effectiveness with which visual feedback is processed offline is not a simple function of the amount of visual information available, but depends on how that information is presented.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Differences in visuomotor control between the upper and lower visual fields.

Danckert and Goodale [Exp Brain Res 137:303-308 (2001)] have shown that increases in movement time as target size decreased were greater when movements were performed in the lower compared with upper visual field. On this basis, they suggested that visual feedback processing was more effective in the lower visual field. However, despite the greater influence of target size on movement time for the lower compared to upper visual field, there were no differences in accuracy between visual fields for movements to the smallest targets. In the present study, we investigated whether superior performance would be observed in the lower visual field when movement times were constrained. Analysis of the variability in distance travelled at key kinematic markers (e.g. peak acceleration, peak velocity, and peak negative acceleration) revealed that limb trajectories were more consistent in the lower compared to upper visual field at the late stages of the movement. Also, squared correlation coefficients between the distance travelled at peak velocity and the distance at the end of the movement were smaller for movements performed in the lower visual field. These results imply that superior performance in the lower visual field was due to better utilization of visual feedback during movement execution.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

The utilization of visual feedback from peripheral and central vision in the control of direction.

Past research has demonstrated that both peripheral and central vision play an important role in the control of movement direction. However, it has been unclear whether the benefits of these sources of information are due to adjustments in the limb trajectory during movement execution (i.e., online) or modification in motor commands prior to movement initiation (i.e., offline). In the present paper, we analyzed the variability in limb trajectories in a directional aiming task to examine the relative contributions of peripheral and central vision in both the planning and execution of movements. The point of gaze was manipulated to vary where in the limb trajectory information was gained from central and peripheral vision. Analysis of the variability in directional error at various stages of the movement revealed that participants utilized information from early in the trajectory during movement execution when it appeared in both peripheral and central visual fields. Information from late in the trajectory was used offline to improve the programming of subsequent movements regardless of where this information was available in the visual field.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Online versus offline processing of visual feedback in the control of movement amplitude.

Researchers have suggested that visual feedback not only plays a role in the correction of errors during movement execution but that visual feedback from a completed movement is processed offline to improve programming on upcoming trials. In the present study, we examined the potential contribution of online and offline processing of visual feedback by analysing spatial variability at various kinematic landmarks in the limb trajectory (peak acceleration, peak velocity, peak negative acceleration and movement end). Participants performed a single degree of freedom video aiming task with and without vision of the cursor under four criterion movement times (225, 300, 375 and 450 ms). For movement times of 225 and 300 ms, the full vision condition was less variable than the no vision condition. However, the form of the variability profiles did not differ between visual conditions suggesting that the contribution of visual feedback was due to offline processes. In the 375 and 450 ms conditions, there was evidence for both online and offline control as the form of the variability profiles differed significantly between visual conditions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Online versus offline processing of visual feedback in the production of component submovements.

The present authors tested the assumptions in R. S. Woodworth's (1899) 2-component model regarding the specific roles of vision in the production of both the initial impulse and the error-correction phases of movement. Participants (N = 40) practiced a rapid aiming task (1,500 trials), with either no visual feedback, vision of only the 1st 50% of the movement, vision of only the 1st 75% of the movement, or vision of the entire movement. Consistent with previous research, the availability of vision over the 1st half of the movement had no effect on aiming accuracy during acquisition. In contrast, when visual feedback was available over the 1st 75% of the movement and the entire movement, initial impulse endpoints were less variable and the efficiency of the error-correction phase was improved. Analysis of spatial variability at various stages in the movement revealed that participants processed visual feedback offline to improve programming of the initial impulse and processed it online in regulating the deceleration of the initial impulse.

Computers↗

PubMed2003

Guiding movements with internal representations: a reach-and-grasp task.

We investigated participants' ability to use internal representations of the environment to guide prehensile movements, when visual feedback was not available. Reaching and grasping performed with concurrent visual feedback was compared to conditions in which participants actively formed spatial images and passively encoded images from visual presented information. Movement times, the proportion of time spent after peak velocity and peak apertures, were greater when concurrent visual feedback was unavailable. Movement times increased as a function of premovement occlusion length, with passively encoded images resulting in shorter movement durations than actively formed images. The findings indicated that participants adapted their movement trajectories to compensate for the degradation of stored spatial information, when concurrent visual feedback was not available.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The utilization of visual feedback in the control of movement direction: evidence from a video aiming task.

The purpose of the present study was to establish the contribution of visual feedback in the correction of errors during movement execution (i.e., online) and the utilization of visual feedback from a completed movement in the programming of upcoming trials (i.e., offline). Participants performed 2 dimensional sweeping movements on a digitizing tablet through 1 of 3 targets, which were represented on a video monitor. The movements were performed with and without visual feedback under 4 criterion movement times (150, 250, 350, 450 msec). We analyzed the variability in directional error at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the distance between the home position and the target. There were significant differences in variability between visual conditions at each movement time. However, in the 150-msec condition, the form of the variability profiles did not differ between visual conditions, suggesting that the contribution of visual feedback was due to offline processes. In the 250-, 350-, and 450-msec conditions, there was evidence for both online and offline control, as the form of the variability profiles differed between the vision and no vision conditions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Conflicting sources of spatial information in a distance-reproduction task.

Previous research has shown that the reproduction of a criterion distance is biased towards previously coded endpoints. The purpose of this research was to illustrate that, in addition to the retention of endpoint information, the presence of conflicting sources of spatial information within a trial causes systematic response biases in distance reproduction. Three experiments were conducted in which participants performed rapid aiming movements on a digitising tablet that translated to movement of a cursor on a computer monitor. The required movement amplitude in all three experiments was 20 cm. In experiment 1, the location of the home and target positions on the monitor was fixed, but the initial position of the hand was varied randomly from trial to trial. In experiment 2, the change in position of the limb was matched by a corresponding change in the location of the monitor display. In experiment 3, the initial position of the limb was fixed, but the location of the display on the monitor varied from trial to trial. The results of experiments 1 and 2 showed that error varied as a function of the initial position of the limb. However, this effect was greater in experiment 1, where the mapping between the location of the monitor display and limb position varied from trial to trial. There was also an effect of varying the location of the monitor display in experiment 3, but this was smaller than varying initial limb position in experiment 1. These findings suggest that both the retrieval of previously specified endpoints and conflicts in the coding of spatial information contributed to the observed response biases in distance reproduction.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Optimal control strategies under different feedback schedules: kinematic evidence.

Two experiments were conducted in which participants (N = 12, Experiment 1; N = 12, Experiment 2) performed rapid aiming movements with and without visual feedback under blocked, random, and alternating feedback schedules. Prior knowledge of whether vision would be available had a significant impact on the strategies that participants adopted. When they knew that vision would be available, less time was spent preparing movements before movement initiation. Participants also reached peak deceleration sooner but spent more time after peak deceleration adjusting limb trajectories. Consistent with those findings, analysis of spatial variability at different points in the trajectory indicated that variability increased up to peak deceleration but then decreased from peak deceleration to the end of the movement.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗

PubMed2002

Separate sources of spatial information for distance and location in rapid aiming movements.

The purpose of this research was to examine the role of distance and location information in the production of rapid aiming movements. Participants performed an aiming task consisting of horizontal left-handed elbow flexion movements that translated to movements of a cursor on an oscilloscope screen. The location of the home position and the target on the oscilloscope screen were fixed but the initial angle of the elbow was varied randomly. Participants were informed that the required distance was always constant. Initial impulse and error correction phases were analyzed to examine whether separate spatial codes for distance and position were used in the control of these two movement phases. The results indicated that initial impulse endpoints and the final positions of the limb overshot the target from the leftmost starting positions, while they undershot the target from the rightmost starting positions. Also, varying the initial angle of the elbow had a greater influence on the final position of the limb than initial impulse endpoints.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗