Effect of “dry” immersion on the performance characteristics of a visual-motor task using a joystick depending on the direction of hand movement

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Abstract

Issues related to controlling arm movements in space flight (SF) are extremely important. The success of an operator’s activities depends on the safety of the SF. To study the impact of the SF factor (support unloading), a ground-based “Dry” Immersion (DI) model is used. The study was conducted for 7 days under DI conditions. During the visual-motor task, 10 participants moved the cursor from the center of the screen to randomly appearing peripheral targets using a joystick. The DI effect on cursor movement parameters in four directions was evaluated. There were differences in time and accuracy depending on the hand movement direction in control studies that persisted during and after DI exposure. In the early days of DI, most estimated cursor movement parameters deteriorated, regardless of the direction. By the end of the immersion, they had recovered. The degree of DI influence on cursor movement differed depending on the direction of hand movement, and was most pronounced at the beginning of DI. There was minimal impact of DI on movement from left to right.

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About the authors

L. N. Zobova

State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation – Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: lnz75@mail.ru
Russian Federation, 123007, Moscow

N. V. Miller

State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation – Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: lnz75@mail.ru
Russian Federation, 123007, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Comparison of the temporal and precision parameters of cursor movement (M ± se) during the performance of a visual-motor task depending on the direction of movement (1 – up, 2 – right, 3 – down, 4 – left). a – duration of task performance T (s); b – “latent” reaction time tlat (s); c – time of cursor movement along the trajectory ttr (s); d – precision parameter averaged over the entire length of the trajectory Cos(ɑ)avg; d – precision parameter in the acceleration section Cos(ɑ)usk; e – precision parameter in the deceleration section Cos(ɑ)torm. The abscissa axis shows the days of the study.

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3. Fig. 2. Dynamics of the difference in the cursor movement parameters (M ± se) from the control values (in percent) during the performance of a visual-motor task for different directions of movement (1 – up, 2 – right, 3 – down, 4 – left). a – duration of task performance T (s); b – “latent” reaction time tlat (s); c – time of cursor movement along the trajectory ttr (s); d – accuracy parameter averaged over the entire length of the trajectory Cos(ɑ)avg; d – accuracy parameter in the acceleration section Cos(ɑ)usk; e – accuracy parameter in the deceleration section Cos(ɑ)torm. The abscissa axis shows the days of the study.

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