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Coordination of locomotion and prehension

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Abstract

Although locomotion and prehension are commonly coordinated in everyday life, little previous research has focused on this form of coordination. To address this neglected topic, we asked participants to stand a variable distance from a table, walk up to the table, and move an object on the tabletop to a new tabletop position, either to the right or to the left of the object’s initial position and near or far from that initial position. For large manual displacements, which required a step after picking up the object, subjects preferred to stand on the foot opposite the direction of forthcoming manual displacement. By contrast, for small manual displacements, which did not require a step after picking up the object, subjects showed no support-leg preference when they grasped the object prior to manual displacement. The support-leg preferences at grasp time were apparently anticipated by participants as they walked up to the table, indicating considerable long-range planning of entire body positions associated with forthcoming object transfers.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by grant SBR-94-96290 from the National Science Foundation, grants KO2-MH0097701A1 and R15 NS41887-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Research and Graduate Studies Office of The College of Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Robrecht P. R. D. van der Wel & David A. Rosenbaum

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  1. Robrecht P. R. D. van der Wel
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  2. David A. Rosenbaum
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Correspondence to Robrecht P. R. D. van der Wel.

Additional information

This work is based on the Master’s thesis of the first author at the University of Maastricht, which was completed under the supervision of the second author while the first author spent an internship at the first author’s lab.

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van der Wel, R.P.R.D., Rosenbaum, D.A. Coordination of locomotion and prehension. Exp Brain Res 176, 281–287 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0618-0

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