Are you in Canada? Click here to proceed to the HK Canada website.

For all other locations, click here to continue to the HK US website.

Human Kinetics Logo

Purchase Courses or Access Digital Products

If you are looking to purchase online videos, online courses or to access previously purchased digital products please press continue.

Mare Nostrum Logo

Purchase Print Products or Ebooks

Human Kinetics print books and Ebooks are now distributed by Mare Nostrum, throughout the UK, Europe, Africa and Middle East, delivered to you from their warehouse. Please visit our new UK website to purchase Human Kinetics printed or eBooks.

Feedback Icon Feedback Get $15 Off
Skip to content
  • Call Us

    800.747.4457

  • Hours

    Mon-Fri 7am - 5pm CST

  • Contact Us

    Get in touch with our team

  • FAQs

    Frequently asked questions

Human Kinetics
Search Log in Cart
Menu
  • Browse By Subject
    • Browse By Subject
    • A-F
      • Active Aging
      • Anatomy
      • Aquatics
      • Athletic Training and Therapy
      • Biomechanics
      • Coaching and Officiating
      • Dance
      • Fitness and Health
    • G-P
      • Health Care in Exercise and Sport
      • Health Education
      • Kinesiology/Exercise and Sport Science
      • Motor Behavior
      • Nutrition and Healthy Eating
      • Physical Education
      • Physical Therapy/Physiotherapy
      • Physiology of Sport and Exercise
      • Psychology of Sport and Exercise
    • Q-Z
      • Recreation and Leisure
      • Sport Management and Sport Business
      • Sports and Activities
      • Strength Training and Conditioning
      • Stretching, Flexibility, and Recovery
  • K-12 / Higher Education
    • K-12 / Higher Education
    • K-12
      • State Adoptions
      • Find a K-12 Sales Rep
      • K-12 Review/Desk Copy Request
    • Higher Education
      • Adopting a Textbook
      • Find a Higher Education Sales Rep
      • Higher Education Review/Desk Copy Request
      • Custom Textbooks
      • Instructor Ancillaries
  • Professional Education
    • Professional Education
    • Continuing Education Center
    • PE Central Professional Development
    • Teacher Professional Development
    • Coach Education
  • Student Resources
    • Student Resources
    • Accessing Online Materials
    • Browse HKPropel Access
    • K-12 Online Resources
  • Discover More
    • Discover More
    • Newsletters
    • Scholarly Journals
    • Blogs
      • Excerpts
      • Active at Home
      • Buying Guides
      • Dance
      • Learning with HK
      • Physical Education and Health
      • Strength, Conditioning, and Fitness
    • Podcast
    • Webinars
    • My Account
  1. Home
  2. Excerpts
  3. Eye and Hand Coordination While Intercepting Moving Targets
  • Fitness & Health
  • Sport & Exercise Science
  • Physical Education
  • Strength & Conditioning
  • Sports Medicine
  • Sport Management
  • Dance

Eye and Hand Coordination While Intercepting Moving Targets

This is an excerpt from Neurophysiological Basis of Motor Control-3rd Edition by Mark L Latash,Tarkeshwar Singh.

Intercepting and catching a moving projectile are fundamental motor skills that require precise timing and coordination between the eye and the hand. The moving projectile is tracked with smooth-pursuit eye movements, and then the limb is directed toward the point of impending collision. The main difference between reaching and interception movements is that in contrast to saccadic eye movements that are made during reaching, interception movements primarily engage smooth-pursuit eye movements. Tracking moving objects enables continuous high-acuity vision, but smooth-pursuit eye movements are limited to a maximum speed of 80º/s to 100º/s (Meyer et al., 1985). Thus, for stimuli that move faster than that speed, the oculomotor system launches catch-up saccades to compensate for position and velocity errors.

During catching or interception action in sports, players track the moving object with a combination of eye and head movements until the hand is aligned with the moving object at the point of interception (reviewed in Fooken et al. 2021). Often there is a short phase of smooth tracking observed right before the ball is intercepted, suggesting that keeping the eye on the object is important for accurate prediction of object motion (Hayhoe et al. 2012; Land and McLeod 2000). If the eye movements are constrained (e.g., when participants are asked to fixate at a point instead of freely pursuing the moving projectile), their performance is degraded. The most likely explanation for this is that object speed during visual fixation is overestimated, leading to interception movements ahead of the moving object.

It is currently also believed that the nervous system uses efference copies of oculomotor commands associated with smooth-pursuit eye movements to make predictions about object motion and coordinating eye and hand movements for interception. The reliance on both retinal projections of the object image and the extraretinal oculomotor signals might be more important for smooth eye–hand coordination when the object motion is more unpredictable (e.g., intercepting a curving soccer kick or catching a fly) (see figure 30.6).

The studies on manual interception with human participants and primates have highlighted the important role played by the MT/MST and FEF areas and the parietal cortex in the precise spatiotemporal coordination of both eye and limb movements (Merchant et al. 2004, 2006; Zago et al. 2009). Lesions in the parietal cortex, FEF, and MT/MST cause deficits in smooth-pursuit eye movements (Dursteler and Wurtz 1988; Heide et al. 1996) and consequently in eye–hand coordination.

MT and MST project to the premotor cortex, especially the FEF and the dorsal premotor cortex. These projections likely are involved in continuous transformation of motion signals from a projectile into motor commands to move the limb to the right location in space to make contact with the projectile. Simultaneously, the nervous system also prepares a postural response to absorb the projectile’s momentum.

Evidence for the transformation of motion signals to continuous modification of limb posture has come from a study by Selen and colleagues (Selen et al. 2012). In their experiment, participants viewed a dynamic random dot display and indicated their decision about the direction of the dot movement by moving a handle to one of two targets. The random dot (figure 30.1) display engages neural area MT/MST, which is also involved in tracking moving objects. The experimenters perturbed the arm at random times during decision formation. The long-latency reflex gains of the M3 component (also see chapter 18) were modulated by the strength and duration of motion of the random dots, reflecting the accumulated evidence in support of the evolving decision. Their results support the existence of a sensorimotor process that continuously transforms motion signals for limb motor control. Furthermore, this suggests that the motor system might continuously set the referent joint configurations for catching movements based on the sensory output from area MT/MST.

More Excerpts From Neurophysiological Basis of Motor Control-3rd Edition

SHOP


    HK INSIDER

    Get the latest insights with regular newsletters, plus periodic product information and special insider offers.

    JOIN NOW


    Latest Posts

    • Outdoor recreation and adventure activities lead to positive health outcomes for children
    • Schools offer a wide variety of adventure programs for children
    • Using sport to change society
    • Despite progress, equity remains a pressing challenge for women in sport
    • What today’s athletes expect from coaches
    • Barriers to youth participation in physical activity and sport
    Back to top

    About Our Products

    • Catalogs
    • Special Offers
    • Newsletters
    • Report Piracy

    Services

    • Review/Desk Copies
    • Customer Service
    • Accessibility
    • Business to Business

    About Us

    • About Human Kinetics
    • About Lotus Books
    • Career Opportunities
    • Become an Author

    Contact Us

    1607 N. Market Street
    Champaign, IL 61820

    p: 800-747-4457 / f: 217-351-1549

    CustomerSupport@hkusa.com

    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    • TikTok
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    Payment methods accepted
    • American Express
    • Apple Pay
    • Diners Club
    • Discover
    • Google Pay
    • Mastercard
    • Visa

    © 2025 Human Kinetics.
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Product Safety
    • Safe Harbor Policy
    • Returns Policy
    • Shipping Policy
    • Continuing Education
    Human Kinetics Virtual Assistant