An event-based account of coordination stability.

Constraints underlying bimanual coordination have traditionally been explained by dynamic interactions between the effectors. However, the present experiments demonstrate that a fundamental constraint on bimanual performance is the manner in which task goals are represented. In Experiment 1, participants vocalized during in-phase and anti-phase bimanual movements.

Bimanual coordination during rhythmic movements in the absence of somatosensory feedback.

We investigated the role of somatosensory feedback during bimanual coordination by testing a bilaterally deafferented patient, a unilaterally deafferented patient, and three control participants on a repetitive bimanual circle-drawing task. Circles were drawn symmetrically or asymmetrically at varying speeds with full, partial, or no vision of the hands. Strong temporal coupling was observed between the hands at all movement rates during symmetrical drawing and at the comfortable movement rate during asymmetrical drawing in all participants.

Instabilities during antiphase bimanual movements: are ipsilateral pathways involved?

The spatial and temporal coupling between the hands is known to be very robust during movements which use homologous muscles (in-phase or symmetric movements). In contrast, movements using nonhomologous muscles (antiphase or asymmetric movements) are less stable and exhibit a tendency to undergo a phase transition to in-phase movements as movement frequency increases. The instability during antiphase movements has been modeled in terms of signal interference mediated by the ipsilateral corticospinal pathways.

The impact of metrical structure on performance stability in bimanual 1:3 tapping.

Participants performed a three-beat (strong-weak-weak) finger-tapping pattern with one hand while synchronizing taps of the other hand with either the strong tap (metrically congruous rhythm) or one of the weak taps (metrically incongruous rhythms). We tested the hypothesis that performance would be less stable during the production of the incongruous rhythms. The tapping sequences were performed at two different tempi (Experiment 1) and under two different cognitive descriptions of the task (Experiment 2).

Callosotomy patients exhibit temporal uncoupling during continuous bimanual movements.

Rhythmic bimanual movements are highly constrained in the temporal domain, with the gestures of the two hands tightly synchronized. Previous studies have implicated a subcortical locus for temporal coupling based on the observation that these constraints persist in callosotomy patients. We now report that such coupling is restricted to movements entailing a discrete event (such as a movement onset).

On the timing basis of bimanual coordination in discrete and continuous tasks.

Motor events are behaviorally meaningful, discrete entities (e.g., key strokes) that are generated at some specific portion of an effector's movement trajectory.