This project focuses on coordination of eye and hand movements in carrying out simple tasks. Using gaze-contingent displays, we simulate the kinds of retinal damage that are associated with glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, evaluate how damage affects eye-hand coordination and measure how quickly subjects learn to compensate. In three series of experiments, we track eye movements and hand movements and their interaction. Bayesian decision theory provides a very natural way to model and better understand how humans plan movements. The first goal of this research is to extend existing Bayesian decision-theoretic models of movement planning to include eye and hand movements and their interactions. The result will be a predictive model of human planning of movement. A second goal is to better understand how the visuo-motor system learns to compensate for damage due to retinal disease or injury and how to speed such compensation.

Public Health Relevance

We are studying how humans plan movement in realistic tasks that require coordination of hand and eye. Exploring the limits of movement planning in normal, healthy humans gives us insight into how well or poorly they will cope with disease, aging or injury.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01EY019889-01A1
Application #
8040659
Study Section
Cognition and Perception Study Section (CP)
Program Officer
Steinmetz, Michael A
Project Start
2011-02-01
Project End
2014-01-31
Budget Start
2011-02-01
Budget End
2012-01-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$299,598
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041968306
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10012
Juni, Mordechai Z; Gureckis, Todd M; Maloney, Laurence T (2016) Information sampling behavior with explicit sampling costs. Decision (Wash D C ) 3:147-168
Zhang, Hang; Kulsa, Mila Kirstie C; Maloney, Laurence T (2015) Acquisition, representation, and transfer of models of visuo-motor error. J Vis 15:6
Zhang, Hang; Paily, Jacienta T; Maloney, Laurence T (2015) Decision from Models: Generalizing Probability Information to Novel Tasks. Decision (Wash D C ) 2:39-53
Zhang, Hang; Daw, Nathaniel D; Maloney, Laurence T (2015) Human representation of visuo-motor uncertainty as mixtures of orthogonal basis distributions. Nat Neurosci 18:1152-8
Dal Martello, Maria F; DeBruine, Lisa M; Maloney, Laurence T (2015) Allocentric kin recognition is not affected by facial inversion. J Vis 15:5
Fleming, Stephen M; Maloney, Laurence T; Daw, Nathaniel D (2013) The irrationality of categorical perception. J Neurosci 33:19060-70
Zhang, Hang; Daw, Nathaniel D; Maloney, Laurence T (2013) Testing whether humans have an accurate model of their own motor uncertainty in a speeded reaching task. PLoS Comput Biol 9:e1003080
Glaser, Craig; Trommershauser, Julia; Mamassian, Pascal et al. (2012) Comparison of the distortion of probability information in decision under risk and an equivalent visual task. Psychol Sci 23:419-26
Zhang, Hang; Morvan, Camille; Etezad-Heydari, Louis-Alexandre et al. (2012) Very slow search and reach: failure to maximize expected gain in an eye-hand coordination task. PLoS Comput Biol 8:e1002718
Morvan, Camille; Maloney, Laurence T (2012) Human visual search does not maximize the post-saccadic probability of identifying targets. PLoS Comput Biol 8:e1002342

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