Concurrent predictive and prospective strategies in a simple visuomotor task

Interception, a fundamental visuomotor skill for activities such as driving and sports, involves two main strategies: predictive, anticipating the targets trajectory, and prospective, actively tracking and adjusting movement. Experimentally controlled factors could potentially influence the relative usage of these strategies. We designed a visuomotor task to probe the relationship between target predictability and interception strategies. We manipulated stimulus predictability through controlled adjustments of external forces, altering the targets trajectory. We also manipulated the availability of perceptual information by introducing spatial occlusion at specific parts of the visual field. Our observations indicate that decreased target variability promoted predictive interception, whereas increased variability prompted a shift toward prospective strategies. Notably, hand-catching trajectories exhibited increased curvature in response to changes in target variability, whereas eye trajectories displayed a relatively consistent curvature across trials. Similarly, heightened target variability resulted in delayed onset of hand movements while showing no discernible alterations in the onset of eye movements. Thus, gaze position was a poor predictor of hand position, highlighting distinct adaptive patterns for hand and eye movements in response to task unpredictability. Finally, participants exhibited consistent interception strategies within and across sessions, highlighting their differences and preferences for predictive or prospective strategies. These results reveal a dynamic interplay between target predictability and interception, suggesting a flexible combination of both approaches. Examining how humans integrate sensory information, plan, and execute movements provides a unique opportunity to characterize predictive and prospective interception strategies in dynamic, real-world scenarios.