Eye-hand Coordination: Exploring How and When perception and action interact.

人类能够以惊人的精确度伸手抓住物体。无论我们是喝杯咖啡，开车，还是在电脑前工作，我们所做的几乎每一个动作都是由视觉引导和检查的。我们看的地方不是随机的，而是视觉系统主动寻找与手头任务相关的信息的过程。从历史上看，大多数关于眼手协调的研究都涉及到伸手拿起简单的静止积木。这项研究使我们更好地理解了控制感知和行动的系统是如何相互作用的，但并没有正确地捕捉到我们日常生活中所看到的知觉和运动相互作用的复杂动态。游戏和机器人等现代应用程序越来越依赖于动态视觉场景中的自然运动。了解大脑是如何解决这些复杂情景的，将具有直接的实际意义。马洛塔博士和他在马尼托巴大学的实验室采用了一种创新的、注重生态学的方法，通过利用研究各种因素的范式，更好地反映了感知和行动之间相互作用的动态本质。这些范式不仅研究视觉，还研究本体感觉(对身体运动和位置的感知)，不仅研究握力的形成，还研究物体的抬起。为了研究视觉如何用来控制手和手臂的运动，马洛塔博士使用了专门的运动跟踪系统，跟踪眼睛看的地方，同时记录手臂、手和手指在伸展过程中的路径。在接下来的5年里，他和他的团队将(1)确定目标的预期运动如何影响我们看哪里以及我们如何抓取，(2)评估视觉信息的可用性和时机对视觉引导动作的影响，(3)不仅研究我们如何利用视觉信息，而且还研究对身体运动的感知来指导我们的行动。这项基础研究将使我们更清楚地了解我们使用什么信息，以及我们何时使用它，选择我们在哪里观看和把握一个对象，为我们提供关键的洞察力，让我们了解大脑是如何负责这一重要技能的。通过将更多我们的生活经验纳入感知和行动的研究，马洛塔博士的研究将为研究创造新的以生态为重点的路径。这项研究将在游戏开发、体育训练、军事和航天领域得到应用。它还将有助于创建更有效的机器人控制系统，特别是当必须在没有操作员协助的情况下确定关于对象的信息时(例如，盲人或身体受损的设备)。马洛塔博士为他的学员提供了所需的技能，以提高我们对感知和行动的理解，并为机器人工程师提供在现实世界中开发系统所需的信息。

Humans reach out and grasp objects with amazing accuracy. Whether we are picking up a cup of coffee, driving a car, or working on a computer, almost every action we make is guided and checked by vision. Where we look is not random, but rather an active process by the visual system to seek out information relevant to the task at hand. Historically, most investigations of eye-hand coordination have involved reaching out to pick up simple, stationary blocks. This research has moved us towards a better understanding of how the systems controlling perception and action interact, but does not properly capture the complex dynamics of the perceptual and motor interactions seen in our everyday lives. Modern applications like gaming and robotics are increasingly relying on natural movements in dynamic visual scenes. An understanding of how the brain solves these complex scenarios would have immediate practical implications. Dr. Marotta and his lab at the University of Manitoba take an innovative, ecologically focused approach that better reflects the dynamic nature of the interactions between perception and action by utilizing paradigms that investigate a wide range of factors including not just vision but proprioception (the perception of the movements and position of the body), and not just grip formation but object lifting.To study how vision is used to control the movements of the hand and arm, Dr. Marotta uses specialized motion-tracking systems that follow where the eyes are looking while simultaneously recording the path of the arm, hand, and fingers during a reach. Over the next 5 years, he and his team will (1) determine how the expected movement of a target influences where we look and how we grasp, (2) evaluate the effects of the availability and timing of visual information on visually guided action and, (3) investigate not only how we utilize visual information but also perception of the body's movements to guide our actions. This fundamental research will provide a clearer understanding of what information we use, and when we use it, to select where we look at and grasp an object providing us with critical insight into how the brain is responsible for this important skill. By including more of our lived experiences into investigations of perception and action, Dr. Marotta's research will create new ecologically focused pathways to research. This research will have applications for gaming development, sports training, the military and spaceflight. It will also assist in the creation of more efficient control systems for robotics, particularly when information about an object has to be determined without assistance from the operator (e.g. devices for the blind or physically impaired). Dr. Marotta provides his trainees with skills needed to lead the advancement of our understanding of perception and action, and to supply robotics engineers with information needed to develop systems to work in the real world.