Abstract
In point-to-point reaching movements, the trajectory of the fingertip along the horizontal plane is not completely straight but slightly curved sideward. The current paper examines whether this horizontal curvature is related to the height to which the finger is lifted. Previous research suggested that the height to which the hand is lifted might be a determinant of horizontal curvature. We asked participants to make point-to-point movements in three conditions: constrained movements (i.e., fingertip keeps contact with table top) over vertically curved surfaces that differed in height, constrained movements over a flat surface, and unconstrained movements (i.e., fingertip lifted from table top). In constrained movements, we found a strong relation between horizontal curvature and lifted height of the finger. Interestingly, for unconstrained movements, the relation between horizontal curvature and height to which the finger was lifted was weak. This demonstrates that the height to which the finger was lifted relates to horizontal curvature in some, but not in all conditions. This suggests that the height to which the hand is lifted should be included, in particular for constrained movements, when giving a full account of horizontal curvature in point-to-point movements.
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Notes
Due to mistakes in data collection, a total of 4 movement conditions of different participants were incorrect. These missing values were replaced using the EM procedure in SPSS that estimates the means, the covariance matrix, and the correlation of variables with missing values, using an iterative process. The missing conditions were: participant 6, direction 90°, surface height 3.0 cm; participant 10, direction 0°, surface height 3.0 cm; participant 11, direction 90°, unconstrained; participant 14, direction 90°, surface height 4.5 cm.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Bjorn de Laat and Floor Lok for their help with collecting the data and Hans Tholen for constructing the surfaces. We appreciate the help of Henry van de Crommert and Emyl Smid for keeping the equipment running. We thank Chrisitian Greve, Laura Golenia, and Tim Valk for the useful feedback while writing this paper.
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Tuitert, I., Mouton, L.J., Schoemaker, M.M. et al. The effect of the height to which the hand is lifted on horizontal curvature in horizontal point-to-point movements. Exp Brain Res 232, 3211–3219 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4009-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4009-7