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The planning horizon for movement sequences

View ORCID ProfileGiacomo Ariani, Neda Kordjazi, View ORCID ProfileJ. Andrew Pruszynski, View ORCID ProfileJörn Diedrichsen
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204529
Giacomo Ariani
1The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
2Department of Computer Science, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
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  • For correspondence: gariani@uwo.ca
Neda Kordjazi
1The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
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J. Andrew Pruszynski
1The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
4Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
5Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
6Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
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Jörn Diedrichsen
1The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
2Department of Computer Science, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
3Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
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Abstract

When performing a long chain of actions in rapid sequence, future movements need to be planned concurrently with ongoing action. However, how far ahead we plan, and whether this ability improves with practice, is currently unknown. Here we designed an experiment in which healthy volunteers produced sequences of 14 finger presses quickly and accurately on a keyboard in response to numerical stimuli. On every trial, participants were only shown a fixed number of stimuli ahead of the current keypress. The size of this viewing window varied between 1 (next digit revealed with the pressing of the current key) and 14 (full view of the sequence). Participants practiced the task for five days and their performance was continuously assessed on random sequences. Our results indicate that participants used the available visual information to plan multiple actions into the future, but that the planning horizon was limited: receiving information about more than 3 movements ahead did not result in faster sequence production. Over the course of practice, we found larger performance improvements for larger viewing windows and an expansion of the planning horizon. These findings suggest that the ability to plan future responses during ongoing movement constitutes an important aspect of skillful movement. Based on the results, we propose a framework to investigate the neuronal processes underlying simultaneous planning and execution.

Significance Statement Although skill learning has typically focused on the training of specific movement sequences, practice improves performance even for random sequences. Here we hypothesize that a fundamental aspect of skilled sequential behavior is the ability to plan multiple actions into the future, both before and during execution. By controlling the amount of visual information available for motor planning, we show that people plan at least three movements beyond current action and that this planning horizon expands with practice. Our findings suggest that coordinating ongoing movement and planning of future actions is an essential component of skilled sequential behavior and offer testable predictions for the neural implementation of online motor planning.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

  • Funding sources. This work was supported by a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar award and a NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2016-04890) to J.D., and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (BrainsCAN). J.A.P is funded by the Canada Research Chairs program.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 04, 2021.
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The planning horizon for movement sequences
Giacomo Ariani, Neda Kordjazi, J. Andrew Pruszynski, Jörn Diedrichsen
bioRxiv 2020.07.15.204529; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204529
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The planning horizon for movement sequences
Giacomo Ariani, Neda Kordjazi, J. Andrew Pruszynski, Jörn Diedrichsen
bioRxiv 2020.07.15.204529; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.15.204529

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