Advisor Information

Aaron Likens

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Start Date

26-3-2021 12:00 AM

End Date

26-3-2021 12:00 AM

Abstract

Coordination is foundational to human movement. One prominent model of coordination is the Haken-Kelso-Bunz which predicts change in relative phase between two oscillators during movement. Use of this model has shown that the body has a natural tendency to prefer certain coordination patterns over others. The generalizability of the model has sparked its use throughout the scientific community to observe movement through the lens of dynamical systems theory. We contend that this model can be advanced further through incorporation of visually perceived spatial asymmetries, a component not currently accounted for by the model. That is, we sought to find if spatial arrangements of coordinated elements impacts preferred coordination patterns. Participants coordinated their arm movements with a visually displayed sinusoidally oscillating stimulus. A user controlled visual stimulus was displayed on a screen that oscillated due to their arm movement. The subjects performed elbow extension moving the user-controlled marker on the screen in a symmetrical or asymmetrical fashion to the computer-generated oscillating marker. To alter the spatial asymmetry, the computer-controlled marker was shifted from the midline of the subject three incremental amounts on both the left and right side. Results suggest that, in the current context, spatial asymmetries can be captured by a modified HKB model.

COinS
 
Mar 26th, 12:00 AM Mar 26th, 12:00 AM

Modeling Spatial Asymmetry in Visuomotor Coordination

Coordination is foundational to human movement. One prominent model of coordination is the Haken-Kelso-Bunz which predicts change in relative phase between two oscillators during movement. Use of this model has shown that the body has a natural tendency to prefer certain coordination patterns over others. The generalizability of the model has sparked its use throughout the scientific community to observe movement through the lens of dynamical systems theory. We contend that this model can be advanced further through incorporation of visually perceived spatial asymmetries, a component not currently accounted for by the model. That is, we sought to find if spatial arrangements of coordinated elements impacts preferred coordination patterns. Participants coordinated their arm movements with a visually displayed sinusoidally oscillating stimulus. A user controlled visual stimulus was displayed on a screen that oscillated due to their arm movement. The subjects performed elbow extension moving the user-controlled marker on the screen in a symmetrical or asymmetrical fashion to the computer-generated oscillating marker. To alter the spatial asymmetry, the computer-controlled marker was shifted from the midline of the subject three incremental amounts on both the left and right side. Results suggest that, in the current context, spatial asymmetries can be captured by a modified HKB model.