Abstract
Right-handed people show an advantage in detecting a delay in visual feedback concerning an active movement of their right hand when it is viewed in a natural perspective compared to when it is seen as if viewing another person’s hand (Hoover and Harris in Exp Brain Res 233:1053–1060, 2012. doi:10.1007/s00221-014-4181-9; Exp Brain Res 222:389–397, 2015a. doi:10.1007/s00221-012-3224-3). This self-advantage is unique to their dominant hand and may reflect an enhanced sense of ownership which contributes to how right-handed people relate to the world. Here we asked whether left-handers show the same pattern of performance for their dominant hand. We measured the minimum delay that could be detected by 29 left-handers when viewing either their dominant or non-dominant hand from ‘self’ or ‘other’ perspectives and compared their thresholds to an age-matched sample of 22 right-handers. Right-handers showed a significant signature self-advantage of 19 ms when viewing their dominant hand in an expected ‘self’ perspective compared to ‘other’ perspectives. Left-handers, however, showed no such advantage for either their dominant or non-dominant hand. This lack of self-advantage in detecting delayed visual feedback might indicate a less secure sense of body ownership amongst left-handers.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a Discovery Grant 46271-2015 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to LRH. AENH was supported by a York University Provost Dissertation scholarship.
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Hoover, A.E.N., Elzein, Y. & Harris, L.R. Left-handers show no self-advantage in detecting a delay in visual feedback concerning an active movement. Exp Brain Res 234, 1915–1923 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4595-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4595-7