Superior performance by two new methods in identifying the online reaction time of reaching movements

Reaching movements can be redirected during their progress to handle unexpected visual changes, such as a change in target location. It is important to know when these redirections start, i.e., the online reaction time (oRT), but this information is not readily evident since redirections are embedded within a time-varying baseline movement that differs from trial to trial. The one previous study that evaluated the performance of different oRT identification methods utilized simulated redirections with the exact same onset, rather than a range of onsets as would be typically encountered. We addressed this gap by utilizing batches of "hybrid" trials with temporal spread in their oRTs. Each hybrid trial combined a sampled baseline movement with an idealized corrective response. Two new methods had the most accurate identification of online reaction times: