Multisensory contributions to the planning and control of movements to to somatosensory targets

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Many of our daily actions and gestures involve movements to positions located on our own body. These movements include: scratching an itchy nose, wiping away the sweat from our forehead, and clapping our hands together when applauding. Recent work, including much of my own, has found that movements to body positions, commonly referred to as somatosensory targets, are planned and controlled differently than movements to external objects (i.e., visual targets). For example, I found that brain regions associated with visuomotor processing were more active when planning movements to somatosensory targets than visual targets if somatosensory target positions were derived using visual information. Furthermore, I found that when information from non-visual sources (e.g., proprioceptive and tactile information) was used to determine target location, sensory feedback-based corrections to somatosensory target positions occurred faster, and were more accurate, than corrections to visual targets. Taken together, these results suggest that the way we derive somatosensory target positions (e.g., the state estimates) can affect sensory information processing during movement planning and control. The proposed research program will greatly extend my previous work and examine the factors that contribute to the state estimates for the planning and control of movements to somatosensory targets. Critically, the proposed work will build toward my long-term goal of understanding the neural and behavioural mechanisms underlying multisensory integration during human sensorimotor control.  The proposed research program will combine innovative methods from kinesiology and neuroscience to examine whether the visual environment (Project 1) or exercise-induced muscle damage (Project 2) affects how sensory information is used to plan movements to somatosensory targets. This knowledge will be critical to industry developers looking to design better interactive environments for people with sensory deficits and for educators interested in designing training programs for individuals that must perform complex tasks while fatigued. Project 3 will combine novel robot-initiated perturbations and brain stimulation to directly probe the neural networks involved in the feedback-based control of movements to somatosensory targets. This project will yield key insights into the mechanisms involved in human motor control and will help to further develop models of nervous system function. Overall, the findings of this research will impact a wide range of industries and will help to improve Canadian society. Most importantly, the proposed research program will also provide a strong training environment for a diverse group of HQP. Trainees will learn a combination of psychological, physiological, and neuroscience research skills that will make them competitive for both academic and industry positions.