Laterality of cross-modal spatial processing.
This study examined the laterality of spatial-form perception in normal adults using a cross-modal matching paradigm involving visual and tactile processing. Randomly generated eight-point and 12-point Vanderplas and Garvin (1959) patterns were used as the stimuli. In a visual-to-tactile task, a lateralized visual pattern was followed immediately by a haptic task requiring subjects to discriminate which of two simultaneously felt shapes matched the visual pattern. In a tactile-to-visual task, subjects decided which of two simultaneously felt shapes matched a lateralized visual pattern presented after haptic manipulation. There were no main effects for laterality or for sex differences. Matching accuracy was better in the visual-to-tactile task and for less complex stimuli. A visual field by feeling hand interaction showed best recognition accuracy when visual-feeling hand combinations on the same side of the body were used in the two matching tasks. These data reflect a stimulus-response compatibility explanation of spatial-form perception that is consistent with a behavioral and not a cerebral asymmetry model.
D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011601:Psychophysics; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013236:Stereognosis / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields