Factors governing the assignment of visual consequence to the corresponding action

To achieve fast feedback control of voluntary movements, the visual consequences of our motor commands need to be quickly identified and analyzed by the motor control processes in the brain. These processes work remarkably well even in complex visual environments and in the face of discrepancies between physical actuator and visually perceived effect, e.g. when moving a computer mouse on a visually crowded screen. Here, we use an ambiguous situation in which a single cursor could be controlled by either the left or the right hand to determine the visual and cognitive factors that determine the assignment of a visual stimulus to the corresponding motor command. Our results demonstrate that the visuomotor system is exquisitely sensitive to the spatio-temporal correlation between cursor and hands, learning the appropriate mapping implicitly within several minutes. In contrast, spatial proximity between end effector and visual consequence has an immediate but only transient effect on the assignment process. Finally, an explicit instruction about which hand controls the cursor only has a minor influence when the instruction is presented first. These findings provide insight into the relative importance of the factors that determine the binding of visual information to the corresponding motor structures to enable fast feedback control. NEW & NOTEWORTHY For efficient visuomotor online control, the brain needs to solve the correspondence problem between an ongoing movement and its visual consequences. Here, we challenge the visuomotor system with an ambiguous reaching task, in which the visual feedback was controlled by either hand or by a combination of both. Our findings characterize the properties of a flexible assignment process that quickly takes into account the spatio-temporal properties of movements and the visual scene.

Automated summary

In order to achieve fast feedback control of voluntary movements, the brain's motor control processes need to quickly recognize and analyze the visual consequences of motor commands. These processes are able to work well in complex visual environments and even when there are differences between physical actuator and visually perceived effect. Researchers found that the visuomotor system is highly sensitive to the spatial and temporal correlation between a cursor and hands, and is capable of implicitly learning the appropriate mapping within minutes. The spatial proximity between the end effector and visual consequence has an immediate but temporary effect on the assignment process.