The effects of monocular viewing on hand-eye coordination during sequential grasping and placing movements

Abstract The contribution of binocular vision to the performance of reaching and grasping movements has been examined previously using single reach-to-grasp movements. However, most of our daily activities consist of more complex action sequences, which require precise temporal linking between the gaze behaviour and manual action phases. Many previous studies found a stereotypical hand-eye coordination pattern, such that the eyes move prior to the reach initiation. Moving the eyes to the target object provides information about its features and location, which can facilitate the predictive control of reaching and grasping. This temporal coordination pattern has been established for the performance of sequential movements performed during binocular viewing. Here we manipulated viewing condition and examined the temporal hand-eye coordination pattern during the performance of a sequential reaching, grasping, and placement task. Fifteen participants were tested on a sequencing task while eye and hand movements were recorded binocularly using a video-based eyetracker and a motion capture system. Our results showed that monocular viewing disrupted the temporal coordination between the eyes and the hand during the place-to-reach transition phase. Specifically, the gaze shift was delayed during monocular compared to binocular viewing. The shift in gaze behaviour may be due to increased uncertainty associated with the performance of the placement task because of increased vergence error during monocular viewing, which was evident in all participants. These findings provide insight into the role of binocular vision in predictive control of sequential reaching and grasping movements.