Dual-tasking: Is manual tapping independent of concurrently executed saccades?
Maintaining both spatial and temporal accuracy of concurrent motor actions is a challenging behavioral requirement in multi-tasking, where possible resource bottlenecks may become apparent when these units are shared between tasks. This study addresses the question of whether periodic self-paced finger movements (tapping) compulsorily interact with concurrently executed saccades, because they share some common neural control pathways. We employed a dual-task paradigm which was previously used to demonstrate strong interference between independent but concurrently conducted bimanual tapping tasks (Wachter, C., Cong, D.K., Staude, G., Wolf, W., 2008. Coordination of a discrete response with periodic finger tapping, additional experimental aspects for a subtle mechanism. J. Motor Behav. 40, 417-432). Instead of the discrete left hand response, the 13 participants now executed a single saccadic eye movement to a fixed visual target in parallel to continuous periodic tapping of the dominant hand. We expected these reactive saccades to act as a strong perturbation event to the continuous tapping, but the experimental data did not reveal a considerable interference in this specific oculo-manual dual-task experiment.
Sharikadze
Megi
M
Institute of Communication Engineering, University of Federal Armed Forces, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, Neubiberg 85579, Germany. meg.sharikadze@unibw.de
Cong
Dung-Khac
DK
Staude
Gerhard
G
Deubel
Heiner
H
Wolf
Werner
W
D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis