The Relationship Between Hand Movements and Visual Attention.

A new study has found that the goal of hand movements and endogenous attention are separate processes. Researchers from Tohoku University used EEG measurements and steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) to measure the brain's selective attention during the experiment. The study discovered that even when top-down attention was oriented far from the future hand location, visual processing for that location still occurred, indicating separate processes. The findings could help develop systems to maintain appropriate attention states and enhance learning for complex movements and manipulations.