title: Limiting the recruitment of degrees of freedom reduces the stability of perception-action patterns.
abstract: The goal of the present study was to examine how recruiting/suppressing degrees of freedom affects the (differential) stability of two rhythmic perception-action patterns. In particular, participants synchronized either adduction-on-the-beat or abduction-on-the-beat movements of the right index finger with an auditory metronome. The stability of both patterns as performed in the horizontal plane was predicted to depend on the utilization, or recruitment, of the vertical plane of motion. Movements of the index finger were either free or physically restricted to the horizontal plane. The results showed that in the free condition, the vertical plane was recruited more in the more stable pattern (abduction-on-the-beat) than in the less stable pattern (adduction-on-the-beat). In the constrained condition, abduction-on-the-beat pattern was destabilized, whereas the stability of the adduction-on-the-beat pattern was preserved. These results suggest that the recruitment of the vertical plane of motion in the abduction-on-the-beat movements brought about an increase in the stability of this pattern. More generally, the trade-off between the stability of coordination patterns in the horizontal plane is based on a self-organizing process of recruitment in which neuromuscular factors are an intrinsic aspect.
authors.affiliation: UMR 6152 "Mouvement et Perception", Faculté des Sciences du Sport, Université de la Méditerranée, 163, avenue de Luminy, CP 910, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Milliex
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calvin
authors.forename: J-J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Temprado
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007537:Isometric Contraction; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009048:Motor Skills; D009949:Orientation; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011999:Recruitment, Neurophysiological; D013998:Time Perception