Sensory Agreement Guides Kinetic Energy Optimization of Arm Movements during Object Manipulation

摘要

Author Summary Recent studies have shown that when learning novel dynamics in the context of reaching movements, people often ignore energetic optimality in favor of Euclidean geometric optimality, preferring rectilinear paths over mechanically optimal trajectories. Although an explanation could be that sensory-motor coordination ignores energetic cost, another possibility is that different sensing modalities need to be in agreement before the brain will optimize energetic cost during motion. We provide evidence for this latter perspective, by showing that when provided congruency and consistency of visual and haptic feedback, participants take into account both geometric and mechanical properties of a manipulation task. However, when visual and haptic feedback are inconsistent, participants revert to the rectilinear paths seen in previous studies. We conclude from these observations, that when transporting an external object, sensory agreement between vision and touch guides the optimization of the kinetic energy exchanged during movement between the arm and the object.