0000000000222730
AUTHOR
Elena Daprati
Eye position tunes the contribution of allocentric and egocentric information to target localization in human goal-directed arm movements.
Subjects were required to point to the distant vertex of the closed and the open configurations of the Muller-Lyer illusion using either their right hand (experiment 1) or their left hand (experiment 2). In both experiments the Muller-Lyer figures were horizontally presented either in the left or in the right hemispace and movements were executed using either foveal or peripheral vision of the target. According to the illusion effect, subjects undershot and overshot the vertex location of the closed and the open configuration, respectively. The illusion effect decreased when the target was fixated and when the stimulus was positioned in the right hemispace. These results confirm the hypothe…
Haptic information differentially interferes with visual analysis in reaching-grasping control and in perceptual processes.
We used an interference paradigm in order to study integration between haptic and visual information in motor control and in perceptual analysis. Subjects either reached and grasped a visually presented sphere or matched its size with their left hand while manipulating with their right hand another sphere whose size could be smaller or greater. In four experiments haptic analysis of the manipulated sphere could be either automatically incorporated with or explicitly dissociated from visual analysis. In a fifth experiment reaching-grasping and matching were executed with the right hand, whereas manipulation was executed with the left hand. Manipulation with the right hand influenced finger s…
On orienting the hand to reach and grasp an object.
Subjects were required to reach and grasp a parallelepiped, the position, orientation and size of which were varied. The kinematics of reaching and grasping movements was studied in full vision and in no vision conditions. Both direction and movement amplitude of reaching were affected by object orientation. Conversely, both the time course of finger axis orientation and the angular displacement of the hand at wrist were influenced by object position. These results were not modified by the absence of visual control. Finger aperture during grasping was affected by both object size and orientation. This latter result was not due to a distorted size perception, as shown by a control matching e…
Implicit visual analysis in handedness recognition.
In the present study, we addressed the problem of whether hand representations, derived from the control of hand gesture, are used in handedness recognition. Pictures of hands and fingers, assuming either common or uncommon postures, were presented to right-handed subjects, who were required to judge their handedness. In agreement with previous results (Parsons, 1987, 1994; Gentilucci, Daprati, & Gangitano, 1998), subjects recognized handedness through mental movement of their own hand in order to match the posture of the presented hand. This was proved by a control experiment of physical matching. The new finding was that presentation of common finger postures affected responses differ…
Recognising a hand by grasp.
The present study aimed to demonstrate that motor representations are used to recognise biological stimuli. In three experiments subjects were required to judge laterality of hands and forearms presented by pictures. The postures of the hands were those assumed when holding a small, medium and large sphere. In experiment 1, the sphere held in hand was presented, whereas in experiment 2 it was absent. In experiment 3, the same images, showing holding-a-sphere hands, as in experiment 1 were presented, but without forearm. In all experiments one finger of each hand could be absent. In experiment 1 recognition time was longer for those hand postures for which the corresponding grasping motor ac…
Tactile input of the hand and the control of reaching to grasp movements
The role of tactile information of the hand in the control of reaching to grasp movements was investigated. The kinematics of both reaching (or transport) and grasp components were studied in healthy subjects in two experimental conditions. In one condition (control condition) subjects were required to reach and grasp an object that could have two sizes and that could be located at two distances from the viewer. In the other condition (anaesthesia condition) the same movements were executed, but anaesthesia was provided to the subjects' fingertips. In both conditions vision of the hand was prevented during movement. Anaesthesia affected mainly the kinematics of the first phase of grasping, …
Language and motor control.
We investigated the possible influence of automatic word reading on processes of visuo-motor transformation. Subjects reached and grasped an object on which the following Italian words were printed: 'VICINO' (near) or 'LONTAN' (far) on an object either near or far from the agent (experiments 1, 2); PICCOLO (small) or 'GRANDE' (large) on either a small or a large object (experiment 4); and 'ALTO' (high) or 'BASSO' (low) on either a high or a low object (experiment 5). The kinematics of the initial phase of reaching-grasping was affected by the meaning of the printed words. Namely, subjects automatically associated the meaning of the word with the corresponding property of the object and acti…
Right-handers and left-handers have different representations of their own hand
The visual control of our own hand when dealing with an object and the observation of interactions between other people's hand and objects can be involved in the construction of internal representations of our own hand, as well as in hand recognition processes. Therefore, a different effect on handedness recognition is expected when subjects are presented with hands holding objects with either a congruent or an incongruent type of grip. Such an experiment was carried out on right-handed and left-handed subjects. We expected that the different degree of lateralisation in motor activities observed in the two populations [J. Herron, Neuropsychology of left- handedness, Academic Press, New York…
Visual distractors differentially interfere with the reaching and grasping components of prehension movements
In the present study we addressed the issue of how an object is visually isolated from surrounding cues when a reaching-grasping (prehension) movement towards it is planned. Subjects were required to reach and grasp an object presented either alone or with a distractor. In five experiments, different degrees of elaboration of the distractor were induced by varying: (1) the position of the distractor (central or peripheral); (2) the time when the distractor was suppressed (immediately or delayed, with respect to stimulus presentation); and (3) the type of distractor analysis (implicit or explicit). In addition, we tested whether the possible effects of the distractor on reaching-grasping wer…