Between-limb asynchronies during bimanual coordination: effects of manual dominance and attentional cueing.
Whereas previous studies on interlimb coordination have mainly underscored the ubiquitous tendency to synchronize the motions of the limbs, the present experiment revealed a small, but distinct, interlimb asynchrony or phase offset, i.e. the dominant limb led the non-dominant limb during the production of bimanual circle drawing. This asynchrony was clearly evident in the majority of right-handers, but not in left-handers. Moreover, attentional cueing affected the size of the asynchrony. Instructions to visually monitor the dominant limb or non-dominant limb strengthened and weakened the phase offset, respectively. A multifactorial neural account is proposed to underly the temporal asynchrony.
Swinnen
S P
SP
Department of Kinesiology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium. Stephan.Swinnen@FLOK.KULEUVEN.AC.BE
Jardin
K
K
Meulenbroek
R
R
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology