Communications Psychology                          volume  2, Article number: 104  (2024 )             Cite this arti

Humans underestimate the movement range of their own hands

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2024-11-28 17:00:08

Communications Psychology volume  2, Article number: 104 (2024 ) Cite this article

Motor planning and motor imagery are assumed to use veridical internal representations of the biomechanical properties of our limbs. Here, we report that people underestimate their hands’ range of motion. We used two tasks probing representations of own motion range, estimation and imagery, in which participants were supposed to judge their rotational hand movement ranges. In both tasks participants’ judgments were underestimated in three out of four cardinal directions. We suggest that this representational bias provides an optimal balance between movement efficiency and safety in face of the inherently stochastic nature of movement execution.

Internal representations of our limbs’ range of motion are pivotal to our ability to interact efficiently and safely with our environment. Imagine filling a glass with water. To efficiently plan and execute this action, our brain needs to factor in the limitation of our wrist’s rotation to decide whether, and if so when, maintaining a steady stream will require engaging an additional rotation of the shoulder. Given that adults have had years of exploration and practice to refine and update their knowledge about how their hands move, one could assume that we all know our limbs’ range of motion with unparalleled accuracy.

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