Gaze Direction During Bimanual Reaching Is Associated with Changes in Relative Hand Speed
- 1The University of Birmingham
Abstract
The control of visually guided bimanual movements is thought to represent a compromise between the drive for synchrony that characterizes many bimanual movements and the competing demands that characterize the constituent unimanual movements. As a result, while visually guided bimanual movements are found to be ostensibly synchronized, they also demonstrate subtle asynchronies. Here, we conducted a fine-grained analysis of bimanual reaching movements focusing on their relative synchrony as movements unfold and the relationship with gaze behavior. Our novel analysis revealed that participants frequently shifted their gaze laterally several times during bimanual reaches and that these gaze shifts were systematically associated with changes in the speed ratio of the two limbs. More specifically, we observed a strong association between gaze shifts and the speed ratio shifting toward the limb on the attended side. This pattern of behavior was seen regardless of hand dominance and target difficulty, suggesting that it may reflect a common visuomotor strategy during bimanual reaching.
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BibTeX
@misc{yeo2026gaze,
title = {{Gaze Direction During Bimanual Reaching Is Associated with Changes in Relative Hand Speed}},
author = {S.-H. Yeo and S. D. Sardar and R. C. Miall and D. Punt},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.18.752785},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752785v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gaze Direction During Bimanual Reaching Is Associated with Changes in Relative Hand Speed
AU - S.-H. Yeo
AU - S. D. Sardar
AU - R. C. Miall
AU - D. Punt
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.18.752785
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752785v1
AB - The control of visually guided bimanual movements is thought to represent a compromise between the drive for synchrony that characterizes many bimanual movements and the competing demands that characterize the constituent unimanual movements. As a result, while visually guided bimanual movements are found to be ostensibly synchronized, they also demonstrate subtle asynchronies. Here, we conducted a fine-grained analysis of bimanual reaching movements focusing on their relative synchrony as movements unfold and the relationship with gaze behavior. Our novel analysis revealed that participants frequently shifted their gaze laterally several times during bimanual reaches and that these gaze shifts were systematically associated with changes in the speed ratio of the two limbs. More specifically, we observed a strong association between gaze shifts and the speed ratio shifting toward the limb on the attended side. This pattern of behavior was seen regardless of hand dominance and target difficulty, suggesting that it may reflect a common visuomotor strategy during bimanual reaching.
ER -