Perceptual awareness of one's own reaching movement is varied as a function of the accuracy of the visual feedback

Frederic Boy, LPNC/CNRS UMR-5105

Abstract
Using a video-controlled pointing task dissociating the motor and visual aspects of a movement, Boy et al. (2005) showed that visual information dominated when evaluating the spatial aspects of the movement and that kinesthetic/motoric information was neglected.
Following recent advances in multisensory integration understanding (Ernst & Bülthoff, 2004), the goal of the present research is to show that weakening the accuracy of visual signals modifies the way one is aware of the spatial aspects of his/her own movements.
Participants had to monitor 20 pointings from the real-time images provided by a camera placed above the workspace and displayed on a video-screen. A low-pass spatial filtering of the images reduced their spatial resolution. Direct vision of the workspace was precluded and rotating the camera generated a directional discrepancy between actual and viewed movement.
Differently to Boy et al. (2005), when movements’ images are blurry, data showed that evaluations of the spatial aspects of action do not longer rely on the exclusive processing of visual information but rather integrates kinesthetic and/or motoric information.
Thus, the integration of multisensory signals in building movement perceptual awareness is a flexible and adaptive process that depends of the accuracy of the information afforded by visual signals.

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