The use of peripheral vision to guide perturbation-evoked reach-to-grasp balance-recovery reactions

For a reach-to-grasp reaction to prevent a fall, it must be executed very rapidly, but with sufficient accuracy to achieve a functional grip. Recent findings suggest that the CNS may avoid potential time delays associated with saccade-guided arm movements by instead relying on peripheral vision (PV). However, studies of volitional arm movements have shown that reaching is slower and/or less accurate when guided by PV, rather than central vision (CV). The present study investigated how the CNS resolves speed-accuracy trade-offs when forced to use PV to guide perturbation-evoked reach-to-grasp balance-recovery reactions. These reactions were evoked, in 12 healthy young adults, via sudden unpredictable antero-posterior platform translation (barriers deterred stepping reactions). In PV trials, subjects were required to look straight-ahead at a visual target while a small cylindrical handhold (length 25%> hand-width) moved intermittently and unpredictably along a transverse axis before stopping at a visual angle of 20°, 30°, or 40°. The perturbation was then delivered after a random delay. In CV trials, subjects fixated on the handhold throughout the trial. A concurrent visuo-cognitive task was performed in 50% of PV trials but had little impact on reach-to-grasp timing or accuracy. Forced reliance on PV did not significantly affect response initiation times, but did lead to longer movement times, longer time-after-peak-velocity and less direct trajectories (compared to CV trials) at the larger visual angles. Despite these effects, forced reliance on PV did not compromise ability to achieve a functional grasp and recover equilibrium, for the moderately large perturbations and healthy young adults tested in this initial study.