The role of visual attention in movement planning and control A Ross, F Cowie, C Hesse |
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School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom
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| Previous research has suggested that movement planning (requiring ventral stream processing) but not movement control (mediated by the dorsal stream) is vulnerable to dual-task interference from a simultaneously executed - attention demanding - perceptual task [Liu, Chua & Enns, 2008, Experimental Brain Research, 185, 709-717]. This finding has led to the suggestion that the dorsal (action) and ventral (perception) streams might be controlled by separate attentional mechanisms. In this study, we designed a dual-task paradigm in which participants had to perform a pointing movement towards a target presented in their visual periphery whilst at the same time identifying a perceptual target presented in central vision. In 25% of all trials the position of the pointing target perturbed during movement onset requiring the fast online-correction of movement trajectory. Reaction times (RT) and endpoint accuracy in the dual-task condition were compared to performance in a baseline condition in which no perceptual target had to be identified. Our results show dual-task interference effects in both movement planning (indicated by prolonged RTs) and movement control (indicated by reduced endpoint accuracy and less efficient online-corrections after perturbation). These findings provide further evidence that perception and action share the same central processing resources. |
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