Differential contributions to the interception of occluded ballistic trajectories by the temporoparietal junction, area hMT/V5, and the intraparietal cortex

Delle Monache S, Lacquaniti F, Bosco G. Differential contributions to the interception of occluded ballistic trajectories by the temporoparietal junction, area hMT/V5, and the intraparietal cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2017;118(3):1809-1823

Visual scene displayed during the interception task.

<p>The scene represented the fly-ball play of the baseball game. Ball motion (red circle) started from the picture of the batter on the bottom left end of the scene and, by following a parabolic path, landed on the right half of the scene. Note that the animated scene did not reproduce the bat swing at ball launch. In order to intercept the fly-ball trajectory, subjects displaced, with the aid of a computer mouse, the running outfielder either rightward or leftward (yellow arrows indicate possible displacement directions) and pressed the left mouse button to signal the time of interception. The white semitransparent circle around the hand of the outfielder delimited the valid interception zone. In Experiment 2, we provided subjects with knowledge of results by turning the color of the circle either green, to signal successful interception, or red if the ball was missed.</p

Adaptation of button press responses.

<p>Time series of ME along successive 0 g (A–B), 1 g (C–D) and 2 g (E–F) trials of the Visible session of Experiment 2. Each data point represent the mean value among subjects belonging to either Group 3 (left column) or Group 4 (right column). Grey solid lines represent best exponential fits to the time series.</p

Distributions of timing (A–B) and positional errors (C–D) recorded during the Visible session of Experiment 1.

<p>Data-points represent average values (± SEM) computed for each ball acceleration among subjects belonging to either Group 1 (left column) or Group 2 (right column).</p

Ball trajectories used during Experiment 2.

<p>Each panel illustrates the 0 g (blue), 1 g (red) and 2 g (green) trajectories used for each perturbation interval. Perturbed 0 g and 2 g trajectories were identical to those of Experiment 1. Instead, unperturbed 1 g trajectories had the same initial velocity and launch angle of perturbed trajectories and landed in a separate cluster between the shorter 2 g and the longer 0 g.</p

Ball trajectories used during Experiment 1.

<p>A. Perturbation and masking onsets are marked with a cross and an open circle, respectively, on an exemplificative 0 g perturbed trajectory. The time interval between the perturbation and the masking event was set to 500 ms. B–D. Each panel illustrates 0 g (blue), 1 g (red) and 2 g (green) trajectories used for each perturbation interval. Note that, for a given perturbation interval, the two corresponding unperturbed 1 g trajectories landed either between 0 g or 2 g perturbed trajectories.</p

Mean (± SEM) timing and position errors recorded during the Masked session of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 (n = 12 for both experiments).

<p>Mean (± SEM) timing and position errors recorded during the Masked session of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 (n = 12 for both experiments).</p