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Subcortical Visuomotor Control of Human Limb Movement

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Progress in Motor Control

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 826))

Abstract

It is generally accepted that cortical networks play a major role in the visual guidance of human limb movements. However, there is a growing body of evidence that points to subcortical visuomotor processes also having an important role to play. Behavioural evidence in man comes from studies on the very fast responses that occur when a target unexpectedly jumps to a new location during either an upper-limb reaching movement or a lower-limb stepping movement. In both cases, the target jump evokes a correction in the movement trajectory at a surprisingly short latency of 120–160 ms. These very fast reactions have a number of properties that are compatible with subcortical control: (1) they are not abolished by effort of will, (2) they can be made even faster by a startling auditory stimulus, (3) they do not obey Hick’s law. Further evidence comes from measurements of reach adjustment latencies in a subject with agenesis of the corpus callosum. Latencies are the same irrespective of whether the visual stimulus appears in contralateral or ipsilateral hemispace, a finding that is incompatible with cortical visuomotor control.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK

    Brian L. Day

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  1. Brian L. Day
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Correspondence to Brian L. Day .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Mindy F. Levin

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Day, B. (2014). Subcortical Visuomotor Control of Human Limb Movement. In: Levin, M. (eds) Progress in Motor Control. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 826. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1338-1_5

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