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Timing of bimanual movements and deafferentation: implications for the role of sensory movement effects

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Abstract

In a repetitive tapping task, the within-hand variability of intertap intervals is reduced when participants tap with both hands instead of single-handedly. This bimanual advantage has been attributed to timer as opposed to motor variance (according to the Wing-Kristofferson model; Helmuth and Ivry 1996) and related to the additional sensory consequences of the movement of the extra hand in the bimanual case (Drewing et al. 2002). In the present study the effect of sensory feedback of the movement on this advantage was investigated by comparing the results of a person (IW) deafferented below the neck with those of age-matched controls. IW showed an even more pronounced bimanual advantage than controls, suggesting that the bimanual advantage is not due to actual sensory feedback. These results support another hypothesis, namely that bimanual timing profits from the averaging of different central control signals that relate to each effector’s movements.

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Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to IW for his participation in the experiment and his great patience and helpful comments in this matter. We wish also to thank Bruno Repp and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful criticisms, suggestions, and comments on earlier drafts, Frank Miedreich for parts of the programming, and Sabine Burger for her support in data collection. This research was partially supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to the fourth and fifth author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Spemannstrasse 38, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Knut Drewing

  2. Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich, Germany

    Knut Drewing, Prisca Stenneken, Wolfgang Prinz & Gisa Aschersleben

  3. General Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

    Prisca Stenneken

  4. Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Poole Hospital and University of Bournemouth, UK

    Jonathan Cole

Authors
  1. Knut Drewing
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  2. Prisca Stenneken
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  3. Jonathan Cole
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  4. Wolfgang Prinz
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  5. Gisa Aschersleben
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Correspondence to Knut Drewing.

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Drewing, K., Stenneken, P., Cole, J. et al. Timing of bimanual movements and deafferentation: implications for the role of sensory movement effects. Exp Brain Res 158, 50–57 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1870-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1870-9

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