Exploiting the geometry of the solution space to reduce sensitivity to neuromotor noise

Throwing is a uniquely human skill that requires a high degree of coordination to successfully hit a target. Timing of ball release appears crucial as previous studies report required timing accuracies as short as 1-2ms, which however appear physiologically challenging. This study mathematically and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS computational biology 2018-02, Vol.14 (2), p.e1006013-e1006013
Main Authors: Zhang, Zhaoran, Guo, Dena, Huber, Meghan E, Park, Se-Woong, Sternad, Dagmar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Adult
Arm
Arm - physiology
Behavior
Behavioral sciences
Biology
Biology and Life Sciences
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Brain research
Engineering and Technology
Female
Geometry
Hand - physiology
Humans
Male
Mathematical models
Mathematics
Medicine and Health Sciences
Models, Neurological
Motor ability
Movement - physiology
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Neurosciences
Noise
Noise reduction
Noise sensitivity
Physical Sciences
Physiological aspects
Psychomotor performance
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Regression Analysis
Reproducibility of Results
Skills
Solution space
Throwing
Trajectory analysis
Virtual environments
Young Adult
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Summary:Throwing is a uniquely human skill that requires a high degree of coordination to successfully hit a target. Timing of ball release appears crucial as previous studies report required timing accuracies as short as 1-2ms, which however appear physiologically challenging. This study mathematically and experimentally demonstrates that humans can overcome these seemingly stringent timing requirements by shaping their hand trajectories to create extended timing windows, where ball releases achieve target hits despite temporal imprecision. Subjects practiced four task variations in a virtual environment, each with a distinct geometry of the solution space and different demands for timing. Model-based analyses of arm trajectories revealed that subjects first decreased timing error, followed by lengthening timing windows in their hand trajectories. This pattern was invariant across solution spaces, except for a control case. Hence, the exquisite skill that humans evolved for throwing is achieved by developing strategies that are less sensitive to temporal variability arising from neuromotor noise. This analysis also provides an explanation why coaches emphasize the "follow-through" in many ball sports.
ISSN:1553-7358
1553-734X
1553-7358
DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006013