Behavioral evidence for left-hemisphere specialization of motor planning

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that the left hemisphere is dominant for the planning of motor actions. This left-hemisphere specialization hypothesis was proposed in various lines of research, including patient studies, motor imagery studies, and studies involving neurophysiological techniques. However, most of these studies are primarily based on experiments involving right-hand-dominant participants. Here, we present the results of a behavioral study with left-hand-dominant participants, which follows up previous work in right-hand-dominant participants. In our experiment, participants grasped CD casings and replaced them in a different, pre-cued orientation. Task performance was measured by the end-state comfort effect, i.e., the anticipated degree of physical comfort associated with the posture that is planned to be adopted at movement completion. Both left- and right-handed participants showed stronger end-state comfort effects for their right hand compared to their left hand. These results lend behavioral support to the left-hemisphere-dominance motion-planning hypothesis. © 2010 The Author(s).