Orienting visuospatial attention generates manual reaction time asymmetries in target detection and pointing

A Review of the Essential Visual Skills Required for Field Hockey: Beyond 20-20 Optometry

Context: Field hockey is a very technical and tactical sport, requiring immense levels of visual concentration on moving and stationary targets, which can improve visual and team performance. However, in literature, this area of specialty remains underutilized, with most studies seeking to improve physical and physiological performance. Essential visual skills cannot only be attributed to field hockey but to other ball-playing sports and activities of daily living, which allow humans to coexist. The essential visual skills reduce the propensity of making poor decisions, ill preparations, and the exclusion of potent and capable players. Objectives: This review novelly aims to not only compile a comprehensive list of essential visual skills for field hockey players but also to create a starting point for future studies to add to this list, to aid in player talent identification, and eventually create sport-specific visual exercise programs and testing batteries. Discussion: The skills identified in this review preface a platform for human performance professionals to include in their training regimens, with an intent to maximize performance and talent identification and to aid in the formulation of visuospatial test batteries. Even though this list is comprehensive, this is only a starting point for future research to find more visual skills that are essential to field hockey, as well as provide the opportunity to develop the performance of the visual skills of these athletes in ways that have not been done before.

Optimizing Reaction Time in Relation to Manual and Foot Laterality in Children Using the Fitlight Technological Systems

The purpose of the study was to design and implement, in the physical and sports education process and in the motor evaluation process, a program of exercises and specific tests to optimize reaction time by using the Fitlight technological systems in relation to the manual and foot laterality of the pupils and identification of gender differences regarding the development of reaction speed. The study included 231 pupils, between 10 and 11 years old, who were divided into two groups according to gender, as follows: the male sample included 109 (97.32%) subjects, and the female sample included 103 (94.45%) participants. All subjects were identified with right manual and foot laterality. Both samples performed a specific exercise program to optimize reaction time in relation to manual and foot laterality by using Fitlight technologies. In the study, four tests were applied in order to evaluate reaction times using Fitlight, two in relation to the manual laterality and two with foot laterality, and the results were statistically processed with IBM SPPS Statistic 24 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Through the comparative analysis of the samples and the progress aimed at optimizing the reaction time specific to our study, it was found that the female sample recorded greater progress at the level of manual laterality, both for the right hand and for the left one, while the sample of boys recorded significant progress in terms of improving reaction time at the level of right and left foot laterality. At the foot laterality level, the results for the executions with the right foot were better in the simple test with four Fitlight spotlights in a line, and for the complex test, with eight Fitlight spotlights in a square, the results were better in the executions with the left foot. This reveals the fact that the greater the execution complexity, the better the motor prevalence on the left side.

Two separate, large cohorts reveal potential modifiers of age-associated variation in visual reaction time performance

To identify potential factors influencing age-related cognitive decline and disease, we created MindCrowd. MindCrowd is a cross-sectional web-based assessment of simple visual (sv) reaction time (RT) and paired-associate learning (PAL). svRT and PAL results were combined with 22 survey questions. Analysis of svRT revealed education and stroke as potential modifiers of changes in processing speed and memory from younger to older ages (n_total = 75,666, n_women = 47,700, n_men = 27,966; ages 18-85 years old, mean (M)_Age = 46.54, standard deviation (SD)_Age = 18.40). To complement this work, we evaluated complex visual recognition reaction time (cvrRT) in the UK Biobank (n_total = 158,249 n_women = 89,333 n_men = 68,916; ages 40-70 years old, M_Age = 55.81, SD_Age = 7.72). Similarities between the UK Biobank and MindCrowd were assessed using a subset of MindCrowd (UKBb MindCrowd) selected to mirror the UK Biobank demographics (n_total = 39,795, n_women = 29,640, n_men = 10,155; ages 40-70 years old, M_Age = 56.59, SD_Age = 8.16). An identical linear model (LM) was used to assess both cohorts. Analyses revealed similarities between MindCrowd and the UK Biobank across most results. Divergent findings from the UK Biobank included (1) a first-degree family history of Alzheimer's disease (FHAD) was associated with longer cvrRT. (2) Men with the least education were associated with longer cvrRTs comparable to women across all educational attainment levels. Divergent findings from UKBb MindCrowd included more education being associated with shorter svRTs and a history of smoking with longer svRTs from younger to older ages.

Modeling inter-trial variability of pointing movements during visuomotor adaptation

Trial-to-trial variability during visuomotor adaptation is usually explained as the result of two different sources, planning noise and execution noise. The estimation of the underlying variance parameters from observations involving varying feedback conditions cannot be achieved by standard techniques (Kalman filter) because they do not account for recursive noise propagation in a closed-loop system. We therefore developed a method to compute the exact likelihood of the output of a time-discrete and linear adaptation system as has been used to model visuomotor adaptation (Smith et al. in PLoS Biol 4(6):e179, 2006), observed under closed-loop and error-clamp conditions. We identified the variance parameters by maximizing this likelihood and compared the model prediction of the time course of variance and autocovariance with empiric data. The observed increase in variability during the early training phase could not be explained by planning noise and execution noise with constant variances. Extending the model by signal-dependent components of either execution noise or planning noise showed that the observed temporal changes of the trial-to-trial variability can be modeled by signal-dependent planning noise rather than signal-dependent execution noise. Comparing the variance time course between different training schedules showed that the signal-dependent increase of planning variance was specific for the fast adapting mechanism, whereas the assumption of constant planning variance was sufficient for the slow adapting mechanisms.

Aging of stimulus-driven and goal-directed attentional processes in young immigrants with long-term high altitude exposure in Tibet: An ERP study

High altitude (HA) exposure reduces the behavioral response to visual attention and the neural basis is still largely unclear. The present study explored the stimulus-driven and goal-directed factors that are hidden within this attentional behavior impairment via a visual search paradigm in young immigrants in Tibet by recording event-related potential (ERPs). We found that HA explosure significantly slowed the stimulus-driven behaviors instead of the goal-directed behaviors. Furthermore, the P1, N1, and P3 amplitudes collectively indicated the poor efficiency of entire attention behaviors, in which the P3 magnitude of resources allocation was negatively correlated with the attentional behavior response. And the P3 scalp distribution suggested a compensation for insufficient resources of sensory processing only in the goal-directed behaviors. Together, the present study made the point on how stimulus-driven and goal-directed attentional behaviors changed as a result of chronic HA environment exposure, which is similar to aging.

An event-related potential investigation of spatial attention orientation in children trained with mental abacus calculation

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of long-term mental abacus calculation training (MACT) on children’s spatial attention orientation. Fifteen children with intensive MACT (MACT group) and 15 children without MACT (non-MACT group) were selected. The two groups of children were matched in age, sex, handedness, and academic grade. The participants were tested with a Posner spatial cueing task while their neural activities were recorded with a 32-channel electroencephalogram system. The participants’ behavior scores (reaction time and accuracy) as well as early components of event-related potential (ERP) during the tests were statistically analyzed. The behavioral scores showed no significant difference between the two groups of children, although the MACT group tended to have a shorter reaction time. The early ERP components showed that under valid cueing condition, the MACT group had significantly higher P1 amplitude [F(1, 28)=5.06, P<0.05, effective size=0.72] and lower N1 amplitude [F(1, 28)=6.05, P<0.05, effective size=0.82] in the occipital region compared with the non-MACT group. In the centrofrontal brain region, the MACT group had lower N1 amplitude [F(1, 28)=4.89, P<0.05, effect size=0.70] and longer N1 latency [F(1, 28)=6.26, P<0.05, effect size=0.80] than the non-MACT group. In particular, the MACT group also showed a higher centrofrontal P2 amplitude in the right hemisphere [F(1, 28)=4.82, P<0.05, effect size 0.81] compared with the left hemisphere and the middle location. MACT enhances the children’s spatial attention orientation, which can be detected in the early components of ERP.

Do left hand reaction time advantages depend on localising unpredictable targets?

Asymmetries in hand movements have routinely been attributed to properties of the two cerebral hemispheres. In right-handed participants, the non-dominant left hand tends to have shorter reaction times, with the dominant right hand achieving shorter movement durations as well as higher peak velocities. The root cause of the surprising left hand RT effect has been debated, largely in the context of right hemisphere specialisation in attention, visuospatial abilities, or "premotor" processes. Mieschke et al. (Brain Cognit 45:1, 2001) and Barthélémy and Boulinguez ( Behav Brain Res 133:1, 2002) both tried to dissociate "premotor" processes explaining the left hand RT advantage, using reaching paradigms where at least one condition required target detection, but no visually guided aiming movement. Unfortunately, the studies obtained conflicting results and conclusions. In the present study, we attempted to re-examine this kind of paradigm with methodological improvements, such as using a task with higher visuospatial demands. Our results demonstrate that whilst RTs are longer as movement complexity increases across three conditions, the left hand RT advantage is present across all conditions-and no significant interaction between hand and condition was found. No significant hand differences were found in peak velocity or duration. These results suggest that the left hand RT advantage cannot be due to movement planning advantages of the right hemisphere, and instead should be attributed to sustained attention/vigilance lateralisation to the right cerebral hemisphere.

Are there right hemisphere contributions to visually-guided movement? Manipulating left hand reaction time advantages in dextrals

Many studies have argued for distinct but complementary contributions from each hemisphere in the control of movements to visual targets. Investigators have attempted to extend observations from patients with unilateral left- and right-hemisphere damage, to those using neurologically-intact participants, by assuming that each hand has privileged access to the contralateral hemisphere. Previous attempts to illustrate right hemispheric contributions to the control of aiming have focussed on increasing the spatial demands of an aiming task, to attenuate the typical right hand advantages, to try to enhance a left hand reaction time advantage in right-handed participants. These early attempts have not been successful. The present study circumnavigates some of the theoretical and methodological difficulties of some of the earlier experiments, by using three different tasks linked directly to specialized functions of the right hemisphere: bisecting, the gap effect, and visuospatial localization. None of these tasks were effective in reducing the magnitude of left hand reaction time advantages in right handers. Results are discussed in terms of alternatives to right hemispheric functional explanations of the effect, the one-dimensional nature of our target arrays, power and precision given the size of the left hand RT effect, and the utility of examining the proportions of participants who show these effects, rather than exclusive reliance on measures of central tendency and their associated null hypothesis significance tests.

Relative performance of the two hands in simple and choice reaction time tasks

There is evidence that the left hemisphere is more competent for motor control than the right hemisphere. This study investigated whether this hemispheric asymmetry is expressed in the latency/duration of sequential responses performed by the left and/or right hands. Thirty-two right-handed young adults (16 males, 16 females; 18-25 years old) were tested in a simple or choice reaction time task. They responded to a left and/or right visual target by moving their left and/or right middle fingers between two keys on each side of the midline. Right hand reaction time did not differ from left hand reaction time. Submovement times were longer for the right hand than the left hand when the response was bilateral. Pause times were shorter for the right hand than the left hand, both when the responses were unilateral or bilateral. Reaction time results indicate that the putatively more efficient response preparation by the left hemisphere motor mechanisms is not expressed behaviorally. Submovement time and pause time results indicate that the putatively more efficient response execution by the left hemisphere motor mechanisms is expressed behaviorally. In the case of the submovements, the less efficient motor control of the left hand would be compensated by a more intense attention to this hand.

Kinematic and neurophysiological consequences of an assisted-force-feedback brain-machine interface training: a case study

In a proof-of-principle prototypical demonstration we describe a new type of brain-machine interface (BMI) paradigm for upper limb motor-training. The proposed technique allows a fast contingent and proportionally modulated stimulation of afferent proprioceptive and motor output neural pathways using operant learning. Continuous and immediate assisted-feedback of force proportional to rolandic rhythm oscillations during actual movements was employed and illustrated with a single case experiment. One hemiplegic patient was trained for 2 weeks coupling somatosensory brain oscillations with force-field control during a robot-mediated center-out motor-task whose execution approaches movements of everyday life. The robot facilitated actual movements adding a modulated force directed to the target, thus providing a non-delayed proprioceptive feedback. Neuro-electric, kinematic, and motor-behavioral measures were recorded in pre- and post-assessments without force assistance. Patient's healthy arm was used as control since neither a placebo control was possible nor other control conditions. We observed a generalized and significant kinematic improvement in the affected arm and a spatial accuracy improvement in both arms, together with an increase and focalization of the somatosensory rhythm changes used to provide assisted-force-feedback. The interpretation of the neurophysiological and kinematic evidences reported here is strictly related to the repetition of the motor-task and the presence of the assisted-force-feedback. Results are described as systematic observations only, without firm conclusions about the effectiveness of the methodology. In this prototypical view, the design of appropriate control conditions is discussed. This study presents a novel operant-learning-based BMI-application for motor-training coupling brain oscillations and force feedback during an actual movement.

The cost of moving with the left hand

Precise left-hand movements take longer than right-hand movements (for right-handers). To quantify how left-hand movements are affected by task difficulty and phase of movement control, we manipulated the difficulty of repetitive speeded aiming movements while participants used the left or right hand. We observed left-hand costs in both initial impulse and current control phases of movement. While left-hand cost during the initial impulse phase was small, left-hand cost during the current control phase varied from 10 to 60 ms, in direct proportion to the movement's difficulty as quantified by Fitts' law (0.77 < R² < 0.99, across three experiments). In particular, in comparison with a difficult task for the right hand (Fitts' ID(R) = 6.6), the left hand's task would have to be made easier by 0.5 bits (ID(L) = 6.1) to be performed as quickly. The left-hand cost may reflect the time required for callosal transfer of information between the left and right hemispheres during the current control phase of precision left-hand movements or reflect movement control differences in the current control phase of movement that are inherent to the hemispheres. Overall, the present results support multiphase models of movement generation, in which separate specialized processes contribute to the launching and completion of precision hand movements.

The relationship of movement time to hand-foot laterality patterns

Asymmetries in movement times of the hands in 60 healthy participants with different patterns of hand-foot dominance were investigated. Handedness and footedness were assessed by means of questionnaires and verified by simple motor tasks. Psychomotor performance was evaluated by the use of selected tests from the computerised Vienna Test System (VST, Vienna, Austria). Movement time (MT) was assessed separately for dominant and non-dominant hands in a unimanual simple reaction task. Participants performed significantly better with their preferred hand, and differences in performance between right- and left-handers were not significant, neither was there a main effect of foot dominance on MT of the hands. However there was a significant effect of laterality pattern in hand-foot combination on hands MT: participants with cross-lateral dominance patterns of hands and feet performed significantly better than those with congruent hand-foot dominance. No significant interaction with sex was found. These results provide evidence for a lack of independence of hand and foot dominance in motor performance, suggesting the functional significance of limb laterality pattern in the motor control system. The results support the hypothesis that the quality of human hand movements may be influenced not only by central information processing (hemispheric specialisation) but also by other structures and processes of motor control, such as central pattern generators (CPGs) and biomechanical factors.

Comparing temporal order judgments and choice reaction time tasks as indices of exogenous spatial cuing

Attentional disorders are common in individuals with neurological or psychiatric conditions and impact on recovery and outcome. Thus, it is critical to develop theory-based measures of attentional function to understand potential mechanisms underlying the disorder and to evaluate the effect of intervention. The present study compared two alternative methods to measure the effects of attentional cuing that could be used in populations of individuals who may not be able to make manual responses normally or may show overall slowing in responses. Spatial attention was measured with speeded and unspeeded methods using either manual or voice responses in two standard attention paradigms: the cued target discrimination reaction time (RT) paradigm and the unspeeded temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. The comparison of speeded and unspeeded tasks specifically addresses the concern about interpreting RT differences between cued and uncued trials (taken as a proxy for attention) in the context of drastically different baseline RTs. We found significant cuing effects for both tasks (speeded RT and untimed TOJ) and both response types (vocal and manual) giving clinicians and researchers alternative methods with which to measure the effects of attention in different populations who may not be able to perform the standard speeded RT task.

Brain dynamic mechanisms of scale effect in visual spatial attention

The dynamic mechanisms of the early event-related potential scale effect of different attentive regions in the brain was studied. The paradigm of this experiment is the precue-target visual search paradigm by event-related potential technique. The results showed that the reaction time was shortened with the reduction of cue scale, a cue to how big the search area would be, and fixed target stimulus, while the amplitudes of P1 and N1 components of event-related potentials increased. These results not only provided the electrophysiological evidences that supported the zoom-lens theory, but also indicated that the zoom-lens effect happened at the early selected attention period. The results also showed that there existed two kinds of separation in the P2 effect.

Inhibitory control of reaching movements in humans

Behavioral flexibility provides a very large repertoire of actions and strategies, however, it carries a cost: a potential interference between different options. The voluntary control of behavior starts exactly with the ability of deciding between alternatives. Certainly inhibition plays a key role in this process. Here we examined the inhibitory control of reaching arm movements with the countermanding paradigm. Right-handed human subjects were asked to perform speeded reaching movements toward a visual target appearing either on the same or opposite side of the reaching arm (no-stop trials), but to withhold the commanded movement whenever an infrequent stop signal was presented (stop trials). As the delay between go and stop signals increased, subjects increasingly failed to inhibit the movement. From this inhibitory function and the reaction times of movements in no-stop trials, we estimated the otherwise unobservable duration of the stopping process, the stop signal reaction time (SSRT). We found that the SSRT for reaching movements was, on average, 206 ms and that it varied with the reaching arm and the target position even though the stop signal was a central stimulus. In fact, subjects were always faster to withhold reaching movements toward visual targets appearing on the same side of the reaching arm. This behavior strictly parallels the course of the reaction times of no-stop trials. These data show that the stop and go processes interacting in this countermanding task are independent, but most likely influenced by a common factor when under the control of the same hemisphere. In addition, we show that the point beyond which the response cannot be inhibited, the so-called point-of-no-return that divides controlled and ballistic phases of movement processing, lies after the inter-hemispheric transfer.

Acute dose of alcohol affects cognitive components of reaction time to an omitted stimulus: differences among sensory systems

RATIONALE

The possibility that moderate blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) may impair cognitive processes before disturbing motor functions has raised concern about the safety of BACs <or=80 mg/100 ml. Reaction time (RT) to the presentation of a stimulus or to the omission of a regularly occurring stimulus has been fractionated into independent premotor (cognitive) and motor (movement) components. It has been suggested that cognitive processes may be impaired at lower BACs than are motor processes, but the effects of moderate rising and declining BACs on these component RT measures have not been investigated.

OBJECTIVES

An omitted stimulus RT task was used to test the hypothesis that moderate rising BACs impair (slow) premotor RT (PMRT) when motor RT (MRT) remains unaffected. The task included visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli to explore differences in sensory sensitivity to alcohol.

METHODS

Thirty male social drinkers were randomly assigned to three groups (n=10) that received 0.62 g/kg alcohol, 0.8 g/kg alcohol, or a placebo (0 g/kg). All participants performed the task three times: baseline and during rising and declining BACs.

RESULTS

Comparisons of the alcohol and placebo groups showed rising BACs slowed PMRT and had no detectable effect on MRT. Impairment in visual PMRT occurred under both alcohol doses. Auditory PMRT was impaired only under the 0.8 g/kg dose, and tactile PMRT was unaffected.

CONCLUSIONS

Cognitive functions are impaired by moderate increasing BACs that do not affect motor movement, and the tactile sensory system may be relatively insensitive to this impairment.

Behaviorally fractionated reaction time to an omitted stimulus: tests with visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli

Two experiments tested the adequacy of behavioral criteria to fractionate reaction time (RT) into independent premotor (cognitive) and motor components. Healthy participants performed an omitted stimulus reaction time task in which they responded to the termination of a train of lateralized visual, auditory or tactile stimuli. Exp. 1 with 48 participants (24 men) showed premotor RT was independent of motor RT in each sensory modality and did not differ as a function of side of presentation or sex. Repeated tests administered in Exp. 2 (N= 12) also showed no significant association between the behaviorally fractionated measures. These results are comparable to those obtained using muscle potential to fractionate RT and suggest behaviorally fractionated premotor and motor RT could be a reliable, useful tool in the assessment of cognitive and motor processing in different sensory modalities of healthy people or those with brain injury, disease, or drug-induced disturbances.

Processing biases towards the preferred hand: valid and invalid cueing of left- versus right-hand movements

A Posner-like paradigm was employed to investigate the effects of valid and invalid cueing of each hand on reaction time, movement time and peak velocity in an aiming task. Given claims of left hemisphere superiority in movement selection and inhibition (and the privileged within-hemisphere access of the right hand to such systems), it was hypothesised that invalidly cueing the left hand (i.e. right-hand movement precued, left-handed movement required by a go signal) would result in increased reaction time relative to invalid right-hand cueing. The hypothesis was not confirmed as reaction times of both hands were slowed equivalently by invalid cueing. Nevertheless, it was found that the movement duration of the left hand was increased substantially by invalid cueing, while the right hand was unaffected on this measure, suggesting a possible intentional rather than attentional difference between the two hands. These results are discussed in terms of a possible asymmetry of intentional processes related to hand movement and the right-hand advantage in movement duration.

Cerebral correlates of alerting, orienting and reorienting of visuospatial attention: an event-related fMRI study

The identification of brain systems contributing to different aspects of visuospatial attention is of both clinical and theoretical interest. Cued target detection tasks provide a simple means to dissociate attentional subcomponents, such as alerting, orienting or reorienting of attention. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study neural correlates of these distinct attentional processes. Volunteers were scanned while performing a centrally cued target detection task. Four different types of trials (no cue, neutral cue, valid cue and invalid cue trials) with targets appearing either in the right or left hemifield were randomly intermixed. Behaviourally, the data provided evidence for alerting, spatial orienting and reorienting of attention. Neurally, the alerting effect was seen in bilaterally increased extrastriatal blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in neutral as compared to no cue trials. Neural correlates of spatial orienting were seen in anterior cingulate cortex, which was more active during valid as compared to neutral cue trials. Neural correlates of reorienting of attention, that is, higher BOLD activity to invalid as compared to validly cued trials were evident in several brain regions including left and right intraparietal sulcus, right temporo-parietal junction and middle frontal gyrus bilaterally. The data suggest that frontal and parietal regions are specifically involved in reorienting rather than orienting attention to a spatial position. Alerting effects were seen in extrastriate regions which suggest that increased phasic alertness results in a top-down modulation of neural activity in visual processing areas.

Hemispheric asymmetry for trajectory perception

Broadly, the right hemisphere is known to be specialized for spatial processing whereas the left hemisphere is known to be specialized for temporal processing. However, it remains unclear how both hemispheres interact when processing spatio-temporal information. This study investigates, from a behavioral point of view, whether spatio-temporal processing involved in trajectory perception generates hemispheric asymmetries. An experimental task requiring the prediction of coincidence between ballistic trajectories and a stationary target was used. Reaction times were analyzed according to various interhemispheric conditions determined by the visual hemifield on which the stimulus was presented and the hand of response. There was shorter reaction time for the left hand than the right hand, and shorter reaction times for the left visual hemifield than the right visual hemifield for both hands. From these findings, it is inferred that there is likely to be right hemisphere specialization for trajectory perception and that this hemispheric asymmetry is independent of handedness.