Rapid Responses to Reach Errors During Fixation and Pursui

During my time at Queen’s I collaborated with Renato Moraes, a professor from Universidade de São Paulo, who was on sabbatical at the time. Our paper Rapid responses to reach errors are equally strong during fixation and visual pursuit is now published in the Journal of Neurophysiology. I have written a little poem as is tradition in Dr. Seuss style.

Rapid responses to reach errors are equally strong during fixation and visual pursuit
By Dr. Foo’ss
——
Your eyes see.
Your hand moves.
Your eyes see a dot.
Your hand moves to a spot.
Your eyes see a dot that stays on a spot.
Your hand moves in a line,
the visual representation is fine.

And then,
the cursor goes bump,
and the bump makes your hand jump.
Jump back on track
to correct the error you get.
The hand reacts quick,
strong as a brick.

When the eyes see a dot,
on a stationary spot,
and the cursor makes a jump,
the hand corrects the bump.
We have known this before,
we have known this for a while,
this story is a bore,
we already have it on file.

But!
But what if your eyes are not still?
While your eyes see a dot,
the dot moves around,
the dot changes its spot.
Now your eyes cannot chill,
they cannot be still.

Your hand moves in a line,
the visual representation is fine.
And then,
the cursor goes bump,
and the bump makes your hand jump.
Jump back on track
to correct the error you get.
The hand reacts quick,
strong as a brick.

Your hand can correct
as quick as before.
Your hand can respond,
as strong as a boar.
Your hand does not care
for your eyes to be anywhere.

Moving or still,
on a dot at a spot,
on a dot moving its spot.
When your eyes see a jump,
they can signal the bump,
whether the eyes track a dot,
or fixate on a spot,
when the cursor is jumped,
the hand corrects the bump.
The hand reacts quick,
strong as a brick.