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To know or not to know: influence of explicit advance knowledge of occlusion on interceptive actions

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Abstract

This study examined how explicit advance knowledge might influence adaptive behavior to visual occlusions. Catching performance and kinematics of good ball catchers were compared between no, early and late occlusion trials. Discrete visual occlusions of 400 ms, occurring early or late in the ball’s approach trajectory, were randomly interspersed between no occlusion trials. In one condition, the presence and type of occlusion were announced a priori (expected), whereas in another condition no such information was provided (unexpected). Expectation of occlusion resulted in an adapted limb transport and increased grasping time, whereas in the unexpected condition a higher peak of wrist velocity was evident for all occlusion conditions. The observed different adaptations cannot be explained by trial-by-trial adaptations alone and instead provide evidence for the influence of explicit advance knowledge in the motor response of interceptive actions.

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Notes

  1. If this analog signal failed to detect the moment of ball–hand contact, it was derived from the 3D visual reconstruction of the catching movement in the Qualisys software program. A clearly visible sudden jerky backward movement of the index and thumb marker as a consequence of the ball impact was recognized as the moment of contact (Mazyn et al. 2007a).

  2. For most of the participants, a clear peak near the end of the catch characterized hand aperture. However, 5 participants had a plateau shape or a double peak. PHA was then corrected so that it reflects the start of the grasping phase (i.e., a second peak) at the final closure of the hand.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Cindy Lowyck and Arnout Sercu for their help in data collection. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Pieter Tijtgat, Dirk De Clercq & Matthieu Lenoir

  2. Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, The Henry Cotton Building, 15-21 Webster St, Liverpool, L3 2ET, UK

    Simon J. Bennett

  3. Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Geert J. P. Savelsbergh

  4. Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health, Manchester Metropolitan University, John Dalton Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK

    Geert J. P. Savelsbergh

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  1. Pieter Tijtgat
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  2. Simon J. Bennett
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  3. Geert J. P. Savelsbergh
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  4. Dirk De Clercq
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  5. Matthieu Lenoir
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Correspondence to Pieter Tijtgat.

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Tijtgat, P., Bennett, S.J., Savelsbergh, G.J.P. et al. To know or not to know: influence of explicit advance knowledge of occlusion on interceptive actions. Exp Brain Res 214, 483–490 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2846-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2846-1

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