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Perceptual basis of bimanual coordination

Abstract

Periodic bimanual movements are often the focus of studies of the basic organizational principles of human actions1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25. In such movements there is a typical spontaneous tendency towards mirror symmetry. Even involuntary slips from asymmetrical movement patterns into symmetry occur, but not vice versa. Traditionally, this phenomenon has been interpreted as a tendency towards co-activation of homologous muscles, probably originating in motoric neuronal structures. Here we provide evidence contrary to this widespread assumption. We show for two prominent experimental models—bimanual finger oscillation1 and bimanual four-finger tapping2—that the symmetry bias is actually towards spatial, perceptual symmetry, without regard to the muscles involved. We suggest that spontaneous coordination phenomena of this kind are purely perceptual in nature. In the case of a bimanual circling model, our findings reveal that highly complex, even ‘impossible’ movements can easily be performed with only simple visual feedback. A ‘motoric’ representation of the performed perceptual oscillation patterns is not necessary. Thus there is no need to translate such a ‘motoric’ into a ‘perceptual’ representation or vice versa, using ‘internal models’ (ref. 29). We suggest that voluntary movements are organized by way of a representation of the perceptual goals, whereas the corresponding motor activity, of sometimes high complexity, is spontaneously and flexibly tuned in.

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Figure 1: Instructed, synchronous finger oscillation patterns and hand positions.
Figure 2: Relative phase of the fingertips averaged across subjects in experiment 1. a, Congruous hand positions and symmetrical movement instruction.
Figure 3: Percentage of symmetrical taps, in experiment 2, split by movement instruction and bimanual finger setting (see text).
Figure 4: Apparatus used in experiment 3, and instructed synchronous circling patterns of the flags.
Figure 5: Histograms of relative angle of the circling flags, averaged across subjects in experiment 3.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank S. Jordan for discussions; F. Banci for constructing the apparatus used in experiment 3; S. Alessio, B. Schroer and M. Hove for running the experiments; and S. Hass for suggestions concerning the experimental procedure.

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Correspondence to Franz Mechsner.

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Mechsner, F., Kerzel, D., Knoblich, G. et al. Perceptual basis of bimanual coordination. Nature 414, 69–73 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35102060

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