Constraints on Spontaneous Entrainment

^(*) College of the Holy Cross, USA
^(‡) University of Cincinnati, USA
E-mail: rschmidt@holycross.edu, cmbucc12@g.holycross.edu, richamo@ucmail.uc.edu

Abstract

Past research has revealed that a person's rhythmic limb movements become spontaneously entrained to an environmental rhythm if a.) visual information about the environmental rhythm is available and b.) its frequency of the environmental rhythm is near that of the person's movements. Further, this research has demonstrated that if the eyes track the environmental stimulus, the spontaneous entrainment to the environmental rhythm is strengthened. Experiments were performed to investigate two hypotheses that could explain this eye-tracking enhancement of spontaneous entrainment. One hypothesis is that eye tracking allows for the pick up of important coordinative information at the turn-around points of a movement trajectory. Another hypothesis is that the limb movements entrain to the moving eyes through a neuromotor synergy linking the eyes and limb. Results of these experiments will help delineate the informational and dynamical constraints that can impact the acquisition of skilled actions.