Posture and target location effects on manual preference.
Twenty-nine right-handed participants made unimanual movements to 5 target locations while standing and while balancing on a rocker platform. Manual preference was affected by target location (p < .001; manual preference tended to be concordant with target hemispace) and posture (p < .05; responses from the rocker platform were associated with a lower level of right-hand responding). A location by posture interaction (p < .05) indicated that the effect of posture was present only for targets in left hemispace; the right hand was used less frequently in the rocker condition than simple standing. Manual preference is viewed as a process of response selection motivated by an effort to minimize neural processing and mechanical costs.
Westwood
D A
DA
University of Waterloo.
Roy
E A
EA
Bryden
P J
PJ
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture