How we perceive the width of grasped objects: insights into the central processes that govern proprioceptive judgements

Low-level proprioceptive judgements involve a single frame of reference, whereas high-level proprioceptive judgements are made across different frames of reference. The present study systematically compared low-level (grasp → grasp) and high-level (vision → grasp, grasp → vision) proprioceptive tasks, and quantified the consistency of grasp → vision and possible reciprocal nature of related high-level proprioceptive tasks. Experiment 1 (n = 30) compared performance across vision → grasp, a grasp → vision and a grasp → grasp tasks. Experiment 2 (n = 30) compared performance on the grasp → vision task between hands and over time. Participants were accurate (mean absolute error 0.27 cm [0.20 to 0.34]; mean [95% CI]) and precise ( R² = 0.95 [0.93 to 0.96]) for grasp → grasp judgements, with a strong correlation between outcomes (r = -0.85 [-0.93 to -0.70]). Accuracy and precision decreased in the two high-level tasks ( R² = 0.86 and 0.89; mean absolute error = 1.34 and 1.41 cm), with most participants overestimating perceived width for the vision → grasp task and underestimating it for grasp → vision task. There was minimal correlation between accuracy and precision for these two tasks. Converging evidence indicated performance was largely reciprocal (inverse) between the vision → grasp and grasp → vision tasks. Performance on the grasp → vision task was consistent between dominant and non-dominant hands, and across repeated sessions a day or week apart. Overall, there are fundamental differences between low- and high-level proprioceptive judgements that reflect fundamental differences in the cortical processes that underpin these perceptions. Moreover, the central transformations that govern high-level proprioceptive judgements of grasp are personalised, stable and reciprocal for reciprocal tasks. 

Key points: Low-level proprioceptive judgements involve a single frame of reference (e.g. indicating the width of a grasped object by selecting from a series of objects of different width), whereas high-level proprioceptive judgements are made across different frames of reference (e.g. indicating the width of a grasped object by selecting from a series of visible lines of different length). We highlight fundamental differences in the precision and accuracy of low- and high-level proprioceptive judgements. We provide converging evidence that the neural transformations between frames of reference that govern high-level proprioceptive judgements of grasp are personalised, stable and reciprocal for reciprocal tasks. This stability is likely key to precise judgements and accurate predictions in high-level proprioception.