Movement Strategy Moderates the Effect of Spatially Congruent Cues on the Stability of Rhythmic Bimanual Finger Movements

Spatially congruent cues increase the speed of bimanual reach decisions compared with abstract symbolic cues, particularly for asymmetric reaches. Asymmetric rhythmic bimanual movements are less stable than symmetric rhythmic movements, but it is not well understood if spatially congruent cues similarly increase the stability of asymmetric rhythmic bimanual movements. To address this question, in Experiment 1, participants performed symmetric and asymmetric bimanual rhythmic finger tapping movements at different movement frequencies in time with flickering spatially congruent and abstract symbolic stimuli. As expected, symmetric movements were more stable. Spatially congruent cues similarly increased the stability of symmetric and asymmetric movements compared with abstract symbolic cues. The benefits of spatial congruence and movement symmetry were restricted to high movement frequencies (>2 Hz). To better understand if the emergence of these effects at high movement frequencies was driven by a change in movement strategy, in Experiment 2, video of the hands was concurrently recorded during task performance. Markerless motion tracking software revealed that participants switched from discontinuous to continuous movement strategies with increasing movement frequency. Because discontinuous and continuous movements are thought to be controlled by distinct neurocognitive systems, this might explain why the beneficial effects of spatial congruence and response symmetry emerged only at high movement frequencies. Overall, results from the current study indicate that the perceptual quality of the stimulus use to cue movement frequency can have powerful effects on the stability of rhythmic bimanual movements, but that these effects may depend on whether discontinuous or continuous movement strategies are selected.