Interdigital transfer of kinesthetic after-effects

Two experiments investigated the effect of using a different finger for inspection (I) than is used in making judgments on the size of a kinesthetic aftereffect (KAE). Experiment I investigated transfer of I stimulation of the ring finger to judgments made with the index finger, A control group used the index finger for both judgments and 1 period. Results indicated significant KAE for both groups. Experiment II replicated Experiment I except the second finger was used to test for transfer of I stimulation to judgments made with the index finger. Results indicated KAE for only the control group which used the index finger for both judgments and 1 stimulation.     

Interdigital transfer of kinesthetic after-effects

Two experiments investigated the effect of using a different finger for inspection (I) than is used in making judgments on the size of a kinesthetic aftereffect (KAE). Experiment I investigated transfer of I stimulation of the ring finger to judgments made with the index finger, A control group used the index finger for both judgments and I period. Results indicated significant KAE for both groups. Experiment II replicated Experiment I except the second finger was used to test for transfer of I stimulation to judgments made with the index finger. Results indicated KAE for only the control group which used the index finger for both judgments and I stimulation.     

Encoding of kinesthetic extent information

The difference in codability of kinesthetic extent cues for experimenter-determined vs. subject-determined standards was investigated. The task involved moving a slide along a linear track a distance of one-half the total distance of the track. This distance (the standard) was then reproduced. During the presentation of the standard, reaction time to an auditory probe was recorded. One group of subjects determined their own standard (active condition), while the other group moved the slide to a stop located at the standard distance (constrained condition). All subjects were told that the standard was one-half the total distance. A more active encoding process was hypothesized to occur in the active condition which would be reflected in increased reaction time to the probe. The results did not support the attention hypothesis, in that probe reaction times were not significantly different for the two groups. Rather, the data suggested that the important variable in determining the codability of extent cues was the availability of a strategy and not whether the experimenter or the subject determined the standard.

     

Discriminating between action memories: children's use of kinesthetic cues and visible consequences

The present experiments examined the sorts of cues that might be available to facilitate children's ability to discriminate between memories for their own actions. In Experiment 1, 7 and 10 year olds engaged in two types of tracing exercises (using a pencil and a finger; a stylus and a finger; or a stylus and a pencil). Discrimination performance was better when distinguishing between memories involving the use of a pencil vs. a finger than in either of the other two cases. In Experiment 2, children traced and imagined tracing pictures using one of these three tools. Discriminations between memories for tracing and imagined tracing varied with the type of tool involved and interacted with the type of tracing activity (tracing vs. imagining). These differences in discrimination performance demonstrated the importance of kinesthetic cues and visible consequences for children's memory discriminations.     

Differentiating visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice.

Through two experiments, the study sought to emphasize the usefulness of the visual and kinesthetic imagery in mental practice. In Experiment 1, it was hypothesized that when the task to be learned through mental practice necessitates the reproduction of a form by drawing, the visual image, which provides a wide span of apprehension, is more suitable than the kinesthetic image. On the other hand, the kinesthetic image that supplies inputs from the muscles' positions and movements should be more appropriate for the acquisition of the duration of the drawing. In Experiment 2, it was hypothesized that the task, transformed into a motor task necessitating minute coordination of the two hands, would benefit more from kinesthetic imagery. To have optimal control over what was actually experienced during mental practice, the participants' imagery skills were measured. The participants also benefited from prior imagery training. The results demonstrate that when using mental practice to initially acquire a task, visual imagery is better for tasks that emphasize form while kinesthetic imagery is better for those tasks that emphasize timing or minute coordination of the two hands.     

Time-dependent effects of kinesthetic input

Sensory input can be used by the nervous system to control the spatial parameters of motor responses (e.g., distance, velocity, and direction) by initializing these parameters before movement onset and then by adjusting these parameters during movement. Sensory input can also be used to trigger movements. In the experiments reported in this paper, we compared the effects of kinesthetic input on a triggered motor response when the kinesthetic input was generated at different times relative to the onset of the motor response. Human subjects responded to a visual stimulus by intentionally increasing elbow torque to a target level. Kinesthetic input was generated by unexpectedly rotating each subject's elbow 100 ms before the onset of the intentional torque response (early) or coincident with the onset of the intentional torque response (late). The effect of early kinesthetic input on the intentional torque response markedly differed from the effect of late kinesthetic input. The effect of early kinesthetic input was relatively independent of the direction of elbow rotation, had a different dependence on the amplitude of rotation, and required a shorter duration of rotation compared to the effect of late kinesthetic input. These differences in the effects of early and late kinesthetic input might be related to the initialization, triggering, and adjustment of motor responses.     

Visual dominance in the cross-modal kinesthetic to kinesthetic plus visual feedback condition

In previous studies subjects who have learned a positioning response with kinesthetic feedback tended to make greater errors when visual feedback was provided during later trials. These subjects have always performed with both kinesthetic and visual feedback available. This study determined whether subjects with only visual feedback would produce errors similar to those who received kinesthetic plus visual feedback. Blindfolded subjects learned to move a handle to a criterion location with knowledge of results following each trial. Subjects then were assigned to one of three experimental groups, with only kinesthetic feedback, with kinesthetic plus visual feedback, or with only visual feedback. Subjects had 9 trials without knowledge of results in these feedback conditions. When visual feedback was available, subjects tended to make longer response errors. This finding replicates previous studies. Also, the similarity of performances from the conditions with visual feedback indicated the dominance of visual information in the condition with kinesthetic plus visual feedback.     

Age differences in the relationship between visual movement imagery and performance on kinesthetic acuity tests

The Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire was administered to 280 fourteen-year-olds and 186 ten-year-olds, who were then tested on measures of kinesthetic acuity. The relationship between visual movement imagery and kinesthetic acuity scores was significant in the older group: Those with high levels of visual movement imagery performed significantly better on measures of kinesthetic acuity than did those with low imagery. No such effect was found in the younger group. The results indicate that for adolescents, the confounding effect of visual imagery affects the researcher's ability to interpret kinesthetic acuity scores. The relationship between imagery and kinesthesis appears to develop over the period between 10 and 14 years, although such an interpretation may be premature because the measurement of visual movement imagery in the younger age group is problematic.     

Effectiveness of visual vs kinesthetic instruction for learning a gross motor skill

The purpose of this study was to compare visual with kinesthetic instruction for learning a motor skill that is not visually monitorable. Previous studies comparing visual and kinesthetic information have all used arm tasks for which the nonvisual condition was artificial. 20 subjects were randomly assigned to either a kinesthetic or a visual instruction group. The task was to draw a horizontal line with the right foot while in a quadruped position. All subjects received visual knowledge of results. While performance improved over the course of the 10 instructional sessions and trials, no difference in performance was found between the two instructional groups. A follow-up study is required to determine whether this result was based on visual dominance. Understanding the effectiveness of the different modalities for teaching gross motor skills would be valuable to physical therapists, physical educators, and psychologists.     

Developmental study of short-term memory characteristics for kinesthetic movement information

The present experiment was designed to examine age-related characteristics of short-term retention of kinesthetic movement information. 20 children from each age group (6, 8, 10 yr.) were tested for recall of kinesthetic end-location. The results indicate that 6- and 8-yr.-old children became less accurate and more variable in recall performance following a delay interval. However, 10-yr.-old children were capable of maintaining performance accuracy during a delay interval.     

Location of the egocenter in kinesthetic space

The location of the egocenter in kinesthetic space was investigated in 4 experiments. Participants, with their eyes closed, adjusted a comparison stimulus after or while touching a standard in a transverse plane at the belly or shoulder level so that they perceived the line joining the comparison and the fixed standard as pointing directly at themselves. The mean location of the intersections of the obtained lines was taken as the location of the egocenter. The main results showed that the location of the kinesthetic egocenter depended on the hand or hands used for touching, the timing of touching, and the distance of the standard from the participant. Implications of these results were discussed in relation to models of the kinesthetic egocenter.     

Relationship between upper extremity kinesthetic sense and writing performance by students with low vision

Kinesthetic sense plays an important role in writing. Children with low vision lack sensory input from the environment given their loss of vision. This study assessed the effect of upper extremity kinesthetic sense on writing function in two groups, one of students with low vision (9 girls and 11 boys, 9.4 +/- 1.9 yr. of age) and one of sighted students (10 girls and 10 boys, 10.1 +/- 1.3 yr. of age). All participants were given the Kinesthesia Test and Jebsen Hand Function Test-Writing subtest. Students with low vision scored lower on kinesthetic perception and writing performance than sighted peers. The correlation between scores for writing performance and upper extremity kinesthetic sense in the two groups was significant (r = -.34). The probability of deficiencies in kinesthetic information in students with low vision must be remembered.     

Retrograde enhancement of kinesthetic memory by alcohol and by glucose

Several studies have reported that administration of a low dose of alcohol is capable of retrograde enhancement of memory. It has been postulated that the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this effect may involve the liberation of glucose and/or activation of reward centers. Here the effects of a low dose of alcohol were compared to those of glucose on kinesthetic memory. Mood and blood glucose levels were also measured. Compared with a placebo, both glucose and alcohol significantly enhanced kinesthetic memory performance. Only glucose ingestion resulted in significantly elevated blood glucose levels. The three groups' mood scores were statistically indistinguishable. Low-dose alcohol consumption does not result in the release of glucose nor does it affect any aspect of mood, at least as measured here. These results confirm that kinesthetic memory can be improved by administration of alcohol and extend the range of tasks which are sensitive to enhancement by glucose.     

Testing the validity of the paddle method for the kinesthetic and visual-kinesthetic perception of inclination

We tested the validity of the paddle method for measuring both the kinesthetic and visual-kinesthetic perception of inclination. In three conditions, subjects performed three different tasks: (1) rotating a manual paddle to a set of verbally given inclinations (blindfolded subjects), (2) rotating a manual paddle to the same set of verbally given inclinations after specific kinesthetic training (blindfolded subjects), and (3) rotating the paddle to a set of fixed visual inclinations after the kinesthetic training. The results showed a high degree of accuracy and precision in the second and third task but not in the first one. When subjects were asked to rotate a manual paddle to a set of verbally given inclinations, they used three main anchors (0°, 45°, 90°). Furthermore, the paddle method is biased by a kinesthetic deficiency, namely a rotational problem of the wrist that can be corrected by means of specific training.     

Age differences in visual and kinesthetic short-term memory

30 elderly subjects were matched with 30 young subjects and tested on a kinesthetic short-term memory task which required the replication of criterion moves after a variable retention interval under conditions of either rest, differing interpolated movement tasks, or mental activity. A visual control condition was used. Differing interference and temporal decrements were observed. Both old and young subjects differed significantly between sighted and blindfold conditions; however, there was no difference between the performance of the old and the young in the blindfold (kinesthetic) condition. These findings were discussed with respect to practical implications for the retraining of old subjects on certain motor tasks.     

Capture of kinesthesis by a competing cutaneous input

In four experiments, blindfolded participants were presented with pairs of stimuli simultaneously, one to each index finger. Participants moved one index finger, which was presented with cutaneous and/or kinesthetic stimuli, and this movement caused a raised line to move underneath the other, stationary index finger in a yoked manner. The stimuli were 180o rotations of each other (e.g., < and >), and thus when a < was traced with the moving finger, it caused a > to be felt at the stationary finger. When asked to report the experience, participants predominantly reported the cutaneous stimulus, seemingly being ignorant of the kinesthetic stimulus. This appears to be an intrahaptic capture phenomenon, which is of interest because it suggests that conflict between intrahaptic sensory stimuli can go unnoticed; sometimes we are unaware of how we moved, and sometimes we do not know what we touched. The results are interpreted in light of optimal integration, perceptual suppression, reafference suppression, and inattentional blindness.     

Central visual persistences: I. Visual and kinesthetic interactions

Phenomena associated with 'central visual persistences' (CPs) are new to both medical and psychological literature. Five subjects have reported similar CPs: positive afterimages following brief fixation of high-contrast objects or drawings and eye closure. CPs duplicate shapes and colors of single objects, lasting for about 15 s. Unlike retinal afterimages, CPs do not move with the eyes but are stable in extrapersonal space during head or body rotations. CPs may reflect sustained neural activity in neurons of association cortex, which mediate object perception. A remarkable finding is that CPs can be moved in any direction by the (unseen) hand holding the original seen object. Moreover, a CP once formed will 'jump' into an extended hand and 'stick' in that hand as it moves about. The apparent size of a CP of a single object is determined by the size of the gap between finger and thumb, even when no object is touched. These CPs can be either magnified or minified via the grip of the extended hand. The felt orientation of the hand-held object will also determine the orientation of the CP seen in that hand. Thus, kinesthetic signals from hand and arm movements can determine perceived location, size, and orientation of CPs. A neural model based on physiological studies of premotor, temporal, parietal, and prefrontal cortices is proposed to account for these novel phenomena.     

Initiation of bilateral responses in a kinesthetic reaction time task

Two experiments are presented in which different mechanisms controlling each limb in a bilateral arm response to a unilateral kinesthetic stimulus are postulated to occur. In Experiment 1, the limb serving as the stimulus are postulated to occur. In Experiment 1, the limb serving as the stimulus limb was described as operating with relative invariance by using a tightly coupled input-output reflexive pathway, whereas the nonstimulus limb appeared to be controlled by higher-order processing thought to be more susceptible to influences such as hemispheric specialization and stimulus expectancy. The differential control model was further tested in Experiment 2 by retaining the interhemispheric pathway of the unilateral kinesthetic stimulus but experimentally uncoupling the reflex mechanism from the stimulus side. Analyses of bilateral EMG premotor latencies under these conditions revealed that each response side can be controlled at separate levels-i.e., by a reflexive type mechanism or by higher-order processing when one of the response limbs is also the stimulus limb, both sides reflect behavior that is best described by an information processing type of voluntary control.     

Orientation-specificity in kinesthetic spatial learning: The role of multiple orientations

In the current study we tested whether multiple orientations in kinesthetic learning affected how flexibly spatial information is stored and later used in making location judgments. Three groups learned simple routes by walking them while blindfolded, with (1) multiple orientations achieved through normal walking, (2) multiple orientations achieved through backward walking, or (3) a single orientation achieved through walking without turning (which required forward, backward, and sideways walking). When subjects had experienced multiple orientations while learning the routes, later directional judgments were equally accurate (and equally rapid) regardless of whether the judgments were aligned or were contra-aligned with the orientation of the routes as originally learned. In contrast, when routes were learned in a single orientation (without turning), subsequent judgments on contra-aligned trials were both less accurate and slower than judgments on aligned trials. Thus, multiple orientations are important to establish orientation-free, flexible use of spatial information in a kinesthetic learning environment. This contrasts with the pattern of results typically found in visual spatial learning and suggests that the factors that affect orientation specificity of spatial use may differ across spatial modality.     

Oral kinesthetic deficit in adults who stutter: a target-accuracy study

The current study was based on the hypothesis that chronic developmental stuttering in adults involves a deficiency in oral kinesthesia. The authors used a target-accuracy task to compare oral kinesthesia in adults who stutter (n = 17) and in normal speakers (n = 17). During the task, participants were instructed to make accurate jaw-opening movements in visual and nonvisual feedback conditions. The authors further contrasted oral movement control in a normal response time condition with that in a reaction time condition. Overall, the adults who stutter consistently made significantly less accurate and more variable movements than the control participants in the nonvisual condition, but particularly in the reaction time condition. In general, the present findings suggest that chronic developmental stuttering involves an oral kinesthetic deficiency, although without direct measures of somatosensory function, one cannot exclude a motor deficit interpretation.