Skip to main content
Log in

Perceived reachability: the roles of handedness and hemifield

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The impact of reaching experience on the ability to predict one’s own reaching range was investigated. Left- and right-handed participants made verbal estimates about the reachability of a target object for both arms in ipsilateral and contralateral frontal space. There was a significant overestimation bias in both groups and for both hands. The overestimation bias increased with the target object’s eccentricity in contralateral space. The implications of these findings for models of motor control and motor imagery are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Annett M (1970) A classification of hand preference by association analysis. Br J Psychol 61:303–321

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bizzi E, Hogan N, Mussa-Ivaldi FA, Giszter S (1992) Does the nervous system use equilibrium-point control to guide single and multiple joint movements? Behav Brain Sci 15:603–613

    Google Scholar 

  • Bootsma RJ, Bakker FC, van Snippenberg F, Tdlohreg CW (1992) The effect of anxiety on perceiving the reachability of passing objects. Ecol Psychol 4:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryden MP, Singh M, Steenhuis RE, Clarkson KL (1994) A behavioral measure of hand preference as opposed to hand skill. Neuropsychologia 32:991–999

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carello C, Grosofsky A, Reichel FD, Solomon HY, Turvey MT (1989) Visually perceiving what is reachable. Ecol Psychol 1:27–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Jeannerod M (1996) Mentally simulated movements in virtual reality: Behav Brain Res 72:127–134

    Google Scholar 

  • di Pellegrino G, Frassinetti F (2000) Direct evidence from parietal extinction of enhancement of visual attention near a visible hand. Curr Biol 10:1475–1477

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer MH (2000) Estimating reachability: whole body engagement or postural stability? Hum Mov Sci 19:297–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer MH (2003) Can we correctly perceive the reaching range of others? Br J Psychol 94:487–500

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer MH, Rosenbaum DA, Vaughan J (1997) Speed and sequential effects in reaching. J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perform 23:404–428

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer MH, Stewart C, Wood AR (2004) Does motor imagery depend on movement skills? In: Y. Coello (ed) Fonctionnement et dysfonctionnement perceptif et moteur. Presse Universitaires du Septentrion, Lille (in press)

  • Fisk JD, Goodale MA (1985) The organization of eye and limb movements during unrestricted reaching to targets in contralateral and ipsilateral visual space. Exp Brain Res 60:159–178

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitts PM (1954) The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. J Exp Psychol 47:381–391. Reprinted 1992 in: J Exp Psychol Gen 121:262–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerardin E, Sirigu A, Lehericy S, Pauline J-B, Gaymard B, Marsault C, Agid Y, Le Bihan D (2000) Partially overlapping neural network for real and imagined hand movements. Cereb Cortex 10:1093–1104

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goodale MA, Milner AD (2004) Sights unseen. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Graziano MSA, Gross CG (1998) Spatial maps for the control of movement. Curr Opin Neurobiol 8:195–201

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graziano MSA, Yap GS, Gross CG (1994) Coding of visual space by premotor neurons. Science 266:1054–1057

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jeannerod M (1988) The neural and behavioural organization of goal-directed movements. Clarendon Press, Oxford

  • Jeannerod M (1997) The cognitive neuroscience of action. Blackwell, Cambridge MA

  • Johnson SH (2000) Thinking ahead: The case for motor imagery in prospective judgments of prehension. Cognition 74:33–70

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keogh J, Sugden D (1985) Movement skill development. Macmillan, New York

  • Li C-SR (2000) Impairment of motor imagery in putamen lesions in humans. Neurosci Lett 287:13–16

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorch RF, Myers JL (1990) Regression analyses of repeated measures data in cognition research. J Exp Psychol Learni Mem Cogni 16:149–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mark LS, Nemeth K, Gardner D, Dainoff MJ, Paasche J, Duffy M, Grandt K (1997) Postural dynamics and the preferred critical boundary for visually guided reaching. J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perform 23:1365–1379

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maruff P, Velakoulis D (2000) The voluntary control of motor imagery. Imagined movements in individuals with feigned motor impairment and conversion disorder. Neuropsychologia 9:1251–1260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maruff P, Wilson PH, De Fazio J, Cerritelli B, Hedt A, Currie J (1999) Asymmetries between dominant and non-dominant hands in real and imagined motor task performance. Neuropsychologia 37:379–384

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Milner AD, Goodale MA (1995) The visual brain in action. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Palmer SE (1999) Vision science: photons to phenomenology. MIT Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons LM (1994) Temporal and kinematic properties of motor behavior reflected in mentally simulated action. J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perform 20:709–730

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Luppino G (2001) The cortical motor system. Neuron 31:889–901

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robinovitch SN (1998) Perception of postural limits during reaching. J Mot Behav 30:352–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochat P, Wraga M (1997) An account of the systematic error in judging what is reachable. J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perform 23:199–212

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum DA, Loukopoulos LD, Meulenbroek RGJ, Vaughan J, Engelbrecht SE (1995) Planning reaches by evaluating stored postures. Psychol Rev 102:28–67

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum DA, Meulenbroek RG, Vaughan J, Jansen C (2001) Posture-based motion planning: applications to grasping. Psychol Rev 108:709–734

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sirigu A, Duhamel JR (2001) Motor and visual imagery as two complementary but neurally dissociable mental processes. J Cogn Neurosci 13:910–919

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stins JF, Kadar EE, Costall A (2001) A kinematic analysis of hand selection in a reaching task. Laterality 6:347–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viguier A, Clement G, Trotter Y (2001) Distance perception within near visual space. Perception 30:115–124

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank Birgitt Aßfalg for data collection and John Stins for discussions about this work, as well as an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. This work was sponsored by the Royal Society (RSRG 21632).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin H. Fischer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fischer, M.H. Perceived reachability: the roles of handedness and hemifield. Exp Brain Res 160, 283–289 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2007-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2007-x

Keywords

Navigation