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Motor imagery of tool use: relationship to actual use and adherence to Fitts’ law across tasks

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Abstract

A Fitts’ task was used to investigate how tools are incorporated into the internal representations that underlie pointing movements, and whether such knowledge can be generalized across tasks. We measured the speed-accuracy trade-offs that occurred as target width was varied for both real and imagined movements. The dynamics of the pointing tool used in the task were manipulated—regular pen, top-heavy tool, and bottom-heavy tool—to test the fidelity of internal representations of movements involving the use of novel tools. To test if such representations can be generalized, the orientation of the pointing task was also manipulated (horizontal vs. vertical). In all conditions, both real and imagined performances conformed to the speed-accuracy relationship described by Fitts’ law. We found significant differences in imagined MTs for the two weighted tools compared to the regular pen, but not between the weighted tools. By contrast, real movement durations differed between all tools. These results indicate that even relatively brief experience using novel tools is sufficient to influence the internal representation of the dynamics of the tool-limb system. However, in the absence of feedback, these representations do not make explicit differences in performances resulting from the unique dynamics of these weighted tools.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by grant #NS053962 to S.H.F. from the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Portions of this manuscript appeared in Athan P. Papailiou’s honors thesis. The authors would like to thank research assistants Lindsey Butler, Brittany Dungan, and Elizabeth Erickson for their help with data collection, and Bill Troyer for his assistance with tool design.

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Correspondence to Kristen L. Macuga.

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Macuga, K.L., Papailiou, A.P. & Frey, S.H. Motor imagery of tool use: relationship to actual use and adherence to Fitts’ law across tasks. Exp Brain Res 218, 169–179 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3004-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3004-0

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