Coordinative constraints in bimanual tool use

This study investigates coordinative constraints when participants execute discrete bimanual tool use actions. Participants moved two levers to targets that were either presented near the proximal parts of the levers or near the distal tips of the levers. In the first case, the tool transformation (i.e. the relationship between hand movement direction and target direction) was compatible, whereas in the second case, it was incompatible. We hypothesized that an egocentric constraint (i.e. a preference for moving the hands and tools in a mirror-symmetrical fashion) would be dominant when targets are presented near the proximal parts of the levers because in this situation, movements can be coded in terms of body-related coordinates. Furthermore, an allocentric constraint (i.e. a preference to move the hands in the same (parallel) direction in extrinsic space) was expected to be dominant when one of the targets or both are presented near the distal parts of the levers because in this condition, movements have to be coded in an external reference frame. The results show that when both targets are presented near the proximal parts of the levers, participants are faster and produce less errors with mirror-symmetrical when compared to parallel movements. Furthermore, the RT mirror-symmetry advantage is eliminated, when both targets are presented near the distal parts of the levers, and it is reversed, when the target for one lever is presented near its distal part and the target for the other lever is presented near its proximal part. These results show that the dominance of egocentric and allocentric coordinative constraints in bimanual tool use depends on whether movements are coded in terms of body-related coordinates or in an external reference frame.