Lesões motoras de origem central e periférica interferem de forma distinta na acurácia e precisão de alvos em trajetórias biológicas

Abstract

Several experimental results suggest that the perception and production of human movement share a common functional network of control in the brain. To study this perception-action interaction, we evaluated the precision and accuracy by conducting a behavioral test to determine targets in similar trajectories, but differed in relation to their velocity profiles: biological (B) and non-biological (NB). The volunteers were asked to estimate the end point of trajectories that had their last part occluded and that differed in relation to the movement: B and NB and direction: ascent (S) and descent (D). Thirty-six volunteers participated in this study, divided into 3 groups: control with 13 participants (M = 2 and F = 11, mean age 41,36 ± 12,91), central with 12 (M = 6 and F = 6; 51,67 ± 10,13) and peripheral with 11 all males with a mean age of 33,64 ± 7,42. Estimated vector distance was calculated for each trial [DVE (Rn 2 = X 2 + Yn 2 )]. Precision was calculated by the median of the DVE and the accuracy of its dispersion (quartile 75). The results pointed to an interesting finding: the behavioral test was sensitive to point out differences between the biological and non-biological trajectories in the central and peripheral groups. Participants in the central group differed in the upward trajectory showing greater precision in the trajectory with biological profile (U = 7921; p = 0.001), whereas participants in the peripheral group differed in the downward trajectory and showed greater precision in the trajectory with non-biological profile (U = 7263; p = 0.019). The control group had higher precision when compared to the other groups in all trajectories [x² = 348.06 (2); p <0.001]. Regarding the accuracy, the control group and the peripheral group behaved similarly and differed from the central group [control x central - X2 = 16,800 (3); p = 0.001] e [peripheral x central - X2 = 12.774 (3); p = 0.005]. Using a mixed model it was found that the control group is more exact (precise + accurate) than the peripheral group and these are more exact than the central group. Exactitude was higher in detecting descent and biological movements. The results suggest loss of perception-action coupling, the origin of the lesion (central or peripheral) seems to affect differently the recognition of biological movement.