Abstract
We investigated whether the control of movement of the left hand is more likely to involve the use of allocentric information than movements performed with the right hand. Previous studies (Gonzalez et al. in J Neurophys 95:3496–3501, 2006; De Grave et al. in Exp Br Res 193:421–427, 2009) have reported contradictory findings in this respect. In the present study, right-handed participants (N = 12) and left-handed participants (N = 12) made right- and left-handed grasps to foveated objects and peripheral, non-foveated objects that were located in the right or left visual hemifield and embedded within a Müller-Lyer illusion. They were also asked to judge the size of the object by matching their hand aperture to its length. Hand apertures did not show significant differences in illusory bias as a function of hand used, handedness or visual hemifield. However, the illusory effect was significantly larger for perception than for action, and for the non-foveated compared to foveated objects. No significant illusory biases were found for reach movement times. These findings are consistent with the two-visual system model that holds that the use of allocentric information is more prominent in perception than in movement control. We propose that the increased involvement of allocentric information in movements toward peripheral, non-foveated objects may be a consequence of more awkward, less automatized grasps of nonfoveated than foveated objects. The current study does not support the conjecture that the control of left-handed and right-handed grasps is predicated on different sources of information.
Highlights
A possible disparity in the degree to which the right and left hand are susceptible to optical illusions when grasping or pointing at objects has received considerable attention (De Grave et al 2009; Gonzalez et al 2006; Radoeva et al 2005)
This is consistent with the two-visual systems model, which proposes that perception and action are dissociated in that they are supported by separate neuroanatomical pathways and, among other distinctions, exploit diVerent sources of information (e.g., Milner and Goodale 1995, 2008)
Gonzalez et al (2006) argued that because of the encapsulation of visuomotor networks for action in the left-hemispheric dorsal stream, the interactive inXuences of visual perception on movements controlled by the left hemisphere should be reduced relative to movements controlled by the right hemisphere
Summary
A possible disparity in the degree to which the right and left hand are susceptible to optical illusions when grasping or pointing at objects has received considerable attention (De Grave et al 2009; Gonzalez et al 2006; Radoeva et al 2005). The empirical support for this dissociation is partly grounded in intriguing but controversial observations that the perception of objects is much more aVected by illusory conWgurations (and visual context) than movements directed toward those objects (Bruno et al 2008; Ganel et al 2008; cf Franz et al 2009; Smeets and Brenner 2006). This neatly concurs with the functional demands of perception and action. The information-based distinction, implies that an illusory bias in
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