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Grasping without sight: insights from the congenitally blind
Kayla D Stone1, Claudia L R Gonzalez1
1The Brain in Action Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
Plos One
|October 11, 2014
Summary
Hand preference for grasping is independent of visual experience. Congenitally blind individuals show right-hand preference in haptic grasping, similar to sighted individuals in visual grasping.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Human motor control
- Sensory systems
Background:
- Hand preference is well-documented for visually-guided grasping, with a bias towards the right hand, especially for small objects.
- Little is known about hand preference during haptically-guided grasping, where vision is absent.
- Previous studies suggest vision plays a significant role in hand preference for grasping.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate hand preference in congenitally blind (CB) individuals during haptically-guided grasping.
- To compare haptically-guided grasping hand preference in CB individuals with visually-unimpaired (VU) individuals' visually-guided grasping.
- To examine the influence of object size on hand preference across different sensory guidance modalities.
Main Methods:
- Haptically-guided grasping tasks were performed by congenitally blind (CB) individuals.
- Visually-guided grasping tasks were performed by visually-unimpaired (VU) individuals.
- Hand preference and object size effects were analyzed for both groups.
Main Results:
- Congenitally blind individuals exhibited a right-hand preference for haptically-guided grasping, comparable to visually-unimpaired individuals' preference for visually-guided grasping.
- Object size influenced hand use differently: larger objects were more frequently grasped with the right hand in haptic guidance but less so in visual guidance.
- Hand preference for grasping was found to be independent of prior visual experience.
Conclusions:
- Hand preference for grasping is not dependent on visual experience, challenging previous assumptions.
- The findings suggest a left-hemisphere specialization for grasping control that transcends sensory modality.
- Different object features impose distinct demands on haptic versus visual systems during grasping.
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