2012 Volume 39 Issue 2 Pages 129-136
The purpose of this study was to verify the ability to perceive the motion of others from the viewpoint of motor control. We selected a ball-throwing task because it is one of the most skilled multi-joint movements and requires excellent coordination among the joints, and even though it is commonly observed in various sports. The stimulus was a stick picture movie featuring two movements -the normal throwing motion of a skilled thrower (model motion) and an altered throwing motion (delayed motion) developed by systematically manipulating the timing of the elbow extension. Ten highly skilled players volunteered to take part in the study. First, they observed the stimulus twice. Next, they threw the ball once using their usual throwing motion (usual throwing condition) and performed a ball-throwing task that reflected the difference between the model motion and the delayed motion (changed throwing condition). They alternately performed these trials three times. As compared to the usual throwing condition, the changed throwing condition showed a significant decrease in the temporal phase difference between the extension angular velocity at the elbow and the wrist (p<0.05). This change corresponded to the difference between the model motion and the delayed motion in the stimulus. The result of our experiment clearly shows that the participants detected the difference between the model motion and the delayed motion and controlled their movement.
