Visual Regulation of Goal Directed Movement

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Since 2009, my lab has examined the role of practice and strategic behaviours in optimizing the speed, accuracy and energy expenditure of goal-directed reaching and aiming movements. From this work we have developed a model of motor control that posits two "component" modes of online control wherein active online control occurs much earlier than previously thought and rapidly unfolds as a function of a rapid and continuous comparison of dynamic information about limb direction/velocity to an internal representation of the expected sensory consequences of the movement. Since publication, the paper describing this model has been extremely influential averaging over 20 citations per year. The current proposal builds directly upon my research program, predicated upon developing a more complete understanding of how vision regulates human movement, by proposing 11 new studies that will allow us to continue to extend our multiple process model in new directions beyond aiming movements. Series 1 experiments will continue or our work in the visual control of limb movements by conducting experiments designed to further dissociate the visual and proprioceptive regulation of reaching and aiming. Our goal here is to link the representations associated with preplanned voluntary control to those that are automatically engaged when performing in complex environments. Series 2 experiments will begin to assess the predications of our model at more micro and macro levels. Here we propose to investigate the sensorimotor control processes that are integrated during eye-hand coordination tasks by extending our aiming work to the smaller scale interactions between multiple, secondary effector systems that contribute to larger scale motor behaviours. Series 2 experiments focus on the more macro concepts of the visual regulation of movement. The purpose of these studies is to examine how the visual consequences of action are represented at various levels in the kinematic chain during larger scale motor behaviours by exploring how the Central Nervous System coordinates the upper and lower limbs during full-body locomotion through space. Until now our research, and the influential model derived from it, has revolved around a thorough exploration of individual and task constraints associated with manual aiming movements. The proposed experiments will significantly broaden the context of the predictions of this model into human movement across other domains. These parallel streams of research, linked by a common theme of the visual regulation of movement, will provide novel and important extensions to our long term research program. This more comprehensive understanding of the nature of movement in typically developing populations has the additional potential benefits of providing insights into future studies as to how this knowledge can be applied to Canadian populations with movement disorders.