The Ability to Align Vision and Kinaesthesia

We investigated the human ability to align visually and kinaesthetically perceived end positions of arm movements. We specifically looked at the spatial characteristics of movement endpoints and the responses of the visuomotor system to altered relationships between visual and kinaesthetic information. In these studies we tried to determine what spatial information is incorporated in the motor commands generated by the visuomotor system and how this spatial information is represented. The tasks and experimental setup in the present studies were designed to study three-dimensional arm movements with the above-mentioned factors in mind. The main aim of the present research was to reveal the nature of visuomotor coordination. However, the paradigm used also serves to assess the adaptability of the visuomotor system. This may have implications for ’real-life’ situations in which humans are confronted with discrepant sensory information. Discrepancies between what we feel and what we see are present in nearly all man-machine interactions, for instance, in teleoperation. Depending on the circumstances and the task at hand this may impose major demands on the operator and may lead to serious accidents. Endoscopic surgery is seen as complicated and difficult to learn. Knowledge about the way the visuomotor system is organised and the processes by which adaptation occurs may help to identify the crucial difficulties encountered when using complex tools and contribute to the development of appropriate training programs.