Movement Drift in Optic Ataxia Reveals Deficits in Hand State Estimation in Oculocentric Coordinates

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2021-05, Vol.47 (5), p.635-647
• Main Authors: Mikula, Laura, Blohm, Gunnar, Koun, Éric, Khan, Aarlenne Z., Pisella, Laure
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arm; Arm (Anatomy); Arm movements; Ataxia; Cortex; Cortex (parietal); Drift; Eye fixation; Female; Fixation; Hand; Human; Information processing; Life Sciences; Male; Motor Control; Motor Coordination; Motor Processes; Motor task performance; Neurons and Cognition; Parietal cortex; Parietal Lobe; Proprioception; Sensory integration; Visual Field
• ISSN: 0096-1523; 1939-1277
• DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000901

When vision is removed, limb position has been shown to progressively drift during repetitive arm movements. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is known to be involved in the processing of multisensory information, the formation of internal hand estimate, and online motor control. Here, we compared hand position drift between healthy controls and 2 patients with PPC damage to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying movement drift and investigate the possible role of the PPC in this process. To do so, we asked participants to perform back-and-forth movements between 2 targets, in the dark and under different gaze fixation conditions. Each individual participant consistently drifted to the same end position for a given hand and gaze condition. We found that the final drift distance was related to small systematic errors made on the very first trial in the dark, with an approximate 3.5 fold increase in magnitude. Furthermore, PPC damage resulted in greater movement drift in patients when the unseen hand was in the contralesional oculocentric space and also when the target was located in the lower visual field. We conclude that the PPC is involved in the proprioceptive representation of hand position in oculocentric coordinates used for reach planning and motor control. Public Significance StatementThis case study report shows that patients with lesions to the posterior parietal cortex experience difficulties performing repetitive movements in the dark. Their hand progressively drifts away from its initial location, and this effect is exacerbated when gaze fixation is imposed. This suggests that the posterior parietal cortex builds an estimate of the hand location relative to the position of the eyes in space.