Is the Curvature in Hand Movements to Haptic Targets in the Mid Sagittal Plane Caused by a Misjudgment in Direction?

摘要

Goal-directed movements are generally slightly curved. The origin of this curvature has been related to a misjudgment of direction for movements towards visual targets. As it is known that there are large errors in haptic perception of direction, errors in the initial movement direction in movements towards haptic targets may also be related to errors in haptic perception of direction. To test whether this is indeed the case, we compared errors in the initial movement direction of goal directed movements towards haptically defined targets in a mid sagittal plane with the errors in setting a pointer towards the same targets. We found a good correlation between misjudgment in direction and errors in initial movement direction. We conclude that the curvature of movements towards haptic targets is also due to a misjudgment of direction.