ArticlePLoS computational biology2018
Exploiting the geometry of the solution space to reduce sensitivity to neuromotor noise.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Emergent motor timing enhances time perception.iScience · 2025Article
- Implicit motor adaptation patterns in a redundant motor task manipulating a stick with both hands.eLife · 2024Article
- Changes of upper-limb kinematics during practice of a redundant motor task in patients with Parkinson's disease.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Roles and interplay of reinforcement-based and error-based processes during reaching and gait in neurotypical adults and individuals with Parkinson's disease.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Reinforcement-based processes actively regulate motor exploration along redundant solution manifolds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Motor control beyond reach-how humans hit a target with a whip.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Arm movement adaptation to concurrent pain constraints.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Neural Encoding and Representation of Time for Sensorimotor Control and Learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Review
- Back to reality: differences in learning strategy in a simplified virtual and a real throwing task.Journal of neurophysiology · 2021Article
- Promoting Motor Variability During Robotic Assistance Enhances Motor Learning of Dynamic Tasks.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- Learning and transfer of complex motor skills in virtual reality: a perspective review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2019Review
- The primacy of rhythm: how discrete actions merge into a stable rhythmic pattern.Journal of neurophysiology · 2019Article
- Search Strategies in the Perceptual-Motor Workspace and the Acquisition of Coordination, Control, and Skill.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Gender Differences in Throwing Revisited: Sensorimotor Coordination in a Virtual Ball Aiming Task.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Article
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Proximal-to-Distal Sequencing in Team Handball: Prospects for Talent Detection?Journal of human kinetics · 2018Article
- It's Not (Only) the Mean that Matters: Variability, Noise and Exploration in Skill Learning.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Throwing is a uniquely human skill that requires a high degree of coordination to successfully hit a target. Timing of ball release appears crucial as previous studies report required timing accuracies as short as 1-2ms, which however appear physiologically challenging. This study mathematically and experimentally demonstrates that humans can overcome these seemingly stringent timing requirements by shaping their hand trajectories to create extended timing windows, where ball releases achieve target hits despite temporal imprecision. Subjects practiced four task variations in a virtual environment, each with a distinct geometry of the solution space and different demands for timing. Model-based analyses of arm trajectories revealed that subjects first decreased timing error, followed by lengthening timing windows in their hand trajectories. This pattern was invariant across solution spaces, except for a control case. Hence, the exquisite skill that humans evolved for throwing is achieved by developing strategies that are less sensitive to temporal variability arising from neuromotor noise. This analysis also provides an explanation why coaches emphasize the "follow-through" in many ball sports.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.