Cite as:
Arndt P A, 2003, "A common visual - auditory representation for eye and arm movement control?" Perception 32 ECVP Abstract Supplement
A common visual - auditory representation for eye and arm movement control?
P A Arndt
The question whether saccadic eye movements and goal-directed arm movements share control processes or are programmed separately is still unsolved. The effects of visual - auditory stimulation on eye and arm movements were analysed to clarify whether the respective motor control processes are based on the same multimodal representation. A common visual - auditory representation for movement-control processes may be assumed if experimental manipulations of a bimodal stimulus arrangement evoke analogous effects for both kinds of movement. In a focused-attention paradigm, subjects were asked to respond to a visual target stimulus with either a saccadic eye movement, a goal-directed hand movement, or both, and to ignore an accessory auditory stimulus. The effects of spatiotemporal visual - auditory stimulus relationship on movement latencies and error rates, found in the first experiment, contradict the notion of common control processes. In contrast, no evidence for separate movement programming with variation of auditory stimulus intensity was found in a second experiment. The conflicting results may be explained by the assumption that brain structures in charge of hand-movement control have the capability of a higher spatial resolution for auditory stimuli. A third experiment gives an indication of the origin of the higher spatial resolution and supports the notion of a common visual - auditory representation as a basis for eye and arm movement control.
[Supported by Dorothea-Erxleben-Programm, Federal State of Lower Saxony.]
These web-based abstracts are provided for ease of seaching and access, but certain aspects (such as as mathematics) may not appear in their optimum form. For the final published version of this abstract, please see
ECVP 2003 Abstract Supplement (complete) size: 1712 Kb
