Hand selection for object grasping is influenced by recent motor history

Abstract

Action selection processes such as those that underlie decisions about which hand to use for upcoming actions are fundamental to adaptive motor behavior. Previous research has shown that people grasp objects in ways that reflect anticipated task demands as well as recent movement experience. However, very few studies have addressed the possible influence of recent motor history on hand selection. In the current study, participants grasped and placed objects using either their left or right hands. The results showed faster response times to initiate successive actions when hand was repeated, even when those actions involved distinct grasp postures and object placement movements to distinct locations. Conversely, no such planning advantage was observed for repeated grasps for successive actions made with opposite hands. The findings are consistent with the idea that choices about which hand to use in the present are influenced by which hand was used in the recent past. When the same hand can be used for successive actions, planning is made more efficient, presumably because the motor parameters that specify which hand to use can be recalled from recent memory rather than formulated anew. The findings indicate that hand selection is sensitive to recent movement experience and provide novel support for computational efficiency accounts of motor history effects.

Human posterior parietal cortex mediates hand-specific planning

“…These results replicate our previous findings (Valyear and Frey, 2014), and indicate that hand-specific levels of action planning are sensitive to recent motor history.…”

“…Accordingly, our findings provide evidence for the reactivation of limb-specific sensorimotor parameters within identified areas of bilateral PPC and right-hemisphere POp. This model not only accounts for our fMRI-RS results, but also the behavioral RT advantage we observe for performing successive actions with the same versus alternate hand (see also Valyear and Frey, 2014), as well as prior demonstrations of hand selection biases in favor of recent hand-use history (Rostoft et al, 2002; Weiss and Wark, 2009). …”

“…We recently provided additional support for this account (Valyear and Frey, 2014). We showed that response times (RTs) to initiate successive actions are faster when the same versus alternate hand is used, even though those actions involved distinct grasps and object placement movements to distinct locations.…”

“…Specifically, our primary aim was to provide a critical test of the planning efficiency account of our prior behavioral results showing RT differences according to recent hand-use history (Valyear and Frey, 2014). The efficiency hypothesis predicts that these RT effects will be accompanied by fMRI-RS within areas implicated in action planning.…”

Two Routes to the Same Action: An Action Repetition Priming Study

“…There is evidence demonstrating that the probability of selecting a given action is increased when that same action or aspects of the action have been performed prior (repetition effect, action priming): for example, action repetition priming can lead to faster response times (RTs; Craighero, Fadiga, Rizzolatti, & Umilta, 1999; Valyear & Frey, 2014). Another resulting effect may be the tendency to perseverate previously executed postures (Dixon, McAnsh, & Read, 2012; Glover & Dixon, 2013), or movement trajectories (Jax & Rosenbaum, 2007).…”