Studies of squeezing: handedness, responding hand, response force, and asymmetry of readiness potential.
Eleven subjects squeezed an electronic dynamometer, at each of three force levels, with both their right and left hands. In right-handed subjects the premovement "readiness" potentials were larger over the hemisphere contralateral to the responding hand. Left-handed subjects show contralateral dominance when responding with the right hand but not when responding with the left hand. The data suggest that in the potentials studied there is a component associated with the preparation to perform a specific movement, rather than with generalized preparatory processes.
D000200:Action Potentials; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D009119:Muscle Contraction