Detection of mismatching visual kinematics during visuomotor incongruence: A comparison of spatially matched delays vs offsets along identical trajectories

Introducing delays to visual movement feedback or displacing it in space is a common experimental manipulation to study the neurocomputational basis of self-other distinction. While both manipulations imply spatial (positional) mismatches, there are crucial differences between them, such as the asynchrony of higher-level visual vs motor kinematics (velocity, acceleration etc.) resulting from added time delays. In this preregistered experiment, we used a continuous elliptical drawing task while presenting visual movement feedback that was congruent or incongruent; i.e., with an added constant time delay or offset. The task allowed the presentation of delayed and offset feedback along identical trajectories, while controlling for the presence of a spatial discrepancy by matching delay and offset levels. Detection and discrimination of delays and offsets was remarkably similar during execution, suggesting comparable perceptual thresholds for visuomotor mismatches resulting from asynchronous vs nonbiological visual kinematics. During mere passive observation of the same feedback, offsets could also be detected above chance level, in line with the known visual sensitivity to violations of kinematic invariants. However, the detection of offsets at medium levels was better during execution, suggesting a benefit of action for identifying nonbiological kinematics in visual movement feedback.