Where Are You Throwing the Ball? I Better Watch Your Body, Not Just Your Arm!

ABSTRACT: The ability to intercept or avoid a moving object, whether to catch a ball, snatch one's prey, or avoid the path of a predator, is a skill that has been acquired throughout evolution by many species in the animal kingdom. This requires processing early visual cues in order to program anticipatory motor responses tuned to the forthcoming event. Here, we explore the nature of the early kinematics cues that could inform an observer about the future direction of a ball projected with an unconstrained overarm throw. Our goal was to pinpoint the body segments that, throughout the temporal course of the throwing action, could provide key cues for accurately predicting the side of the outgoing ball. We recorded whole-body kinematics from twenty non-expert participants performing unconstrained over

SUBMITTER: Maselli A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5674933 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature