The effect of the height to which the hand is lifted on horizontal curvature in horizontal point-to-point movements

In point-to-point reaching movements, the trajectory of the fingertip along the horizontal plane is not completely straight but slightly curved sideward. The current paper examines whether this horizontal curvature is related to the height to which the finger is lifted. Previous research suggested that the height to which the hand is lifted might be a determinant of horizontal curvature. We asked participants to make point-to-point movements in three conditions: constrained movements (i.e., fingertip keeps contact with table top) over vertically curved surfaces that differed in height, constrained movements over a flat surface, and unconstrained movements (i.e., fingertip lifted from table top). In constrained movements, we found a strong relation between horizontal curvature and lifted height of the finger. Interestingly, for unconstrained movements, the relation between horizontal curvature and height to which the finger was lifted was weak. This demonstrates that the height to which the finger was lifted relates to horizontal curvature in some, but not in all conditions. This suggests that the height to which the hand is lifted should be included, in particular for constrained movements, when giving a full account of horizontal curvature in point-to-point movements.