In human coordination studies information from the environment may not only pace rhythmic behavior, but also contribute to the observed dynamics, e.g. aphenomenon known as anchoring in the literature. For the paradigmatic caseof bimanual coordination we study these contributions mathematically and develop a model of the interaction between the limb's intrinsic dynamics and environmental signals...

Following earlier work by Mechsner et al. (Nature 414 (2001) 69), the purpose of this experiment was to determine the perceptual and motoric contributions to bimanual coordination. Twenty right-handed, healthy, young adults performed continuous, horizontal, linear movements of both upper limbs at frequencies of 1.5 and 2.0 Hz. The goal was to control the spatial-temporal displacement of two fla...

The present research examined two variables regarding the acquisition of a new bimanual coordination pattern: the role of previous experience and the nature of augmented feedback. Two groups of participants acquired a new coordination pattern (135 degrees relative phase) following two sessions of practice of another novel pattern (90 degrees relative phase). Transfer of learning in these groups...

Although strong motor coordination in intrinsic muscle coordinates has frequently been reported for bimanual movements, coordination in extrinsic visual coordinates is also crucial in various bimanual tasks. To explore the bimanual coordination mechanisms in terms of the frame of reference, here we characterized implicit bilateral interactions in visuomotor tasks. Visual perturbations (finger-c...

Past studies on bimanual coordination have revealed a general preference to move the limbs in a symmetrical fashion, also denoted as the in-phase mode. Its counterpart, the asymmetrical or anti-phase mode, is performed with lower degrees of accuracy and stability. This ubiquitous tendency to activate the homologous muscle groups is referred to as the muscle grouping constraint (egocentric const...

Studies of bimanual coordination have typically estimated the stability of coordination patterns through the use of the circular standard deviation of relative phase. The interpretation of this statistic depends upon the assumption of a von Mises distribution. The present study tested this assumption by examining the distributional properties of relative phase in three bimanual coordination pat...

Executed bimanual movements are prepared slower when moving to symbolically different than when moving to symbolically same targets and when targets are mapped to target locations in a left/right fashion than when they are mapped in an inner/outer fashion [Weigelt et al. (Psychol Res 71:238-447, 2007)]. We investigated whether these cognitive bimanual coordination constraints are observable in ...

Hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy and constrained-induced movement therapy have shown evidence of effectiveness in improvement of upper extremity use in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (CP). The effectiveness of interventions that are based on intensive practice of activities that combine UE and LE functions has not been reported. We propose that bimanual UE activities that si...

The corpus callosum (CC) is the largest white matter tract in the brain. It enables interhemispheric communication, particularly with respect to bimanual coordination. Here, we use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in healthy humans to determine the extent to which structural organization of subregions within the CC would predict how well subjects learn a novel bimanual task. A single DTI scan was...

The effect of amplitude incongruence (small circles-large circles) and form incongruence (circles-lines) on the performance of the affected and non-affected arm was examined in 12 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy in bimanual rhythmic drawing tasks. Amplitude and form incongruence are assumed to be associated with aspects of movement execution and movement planning, respectively. The foll...