Article

This study investigated the organising principles of touch. We examined
specialisations within the haptic system and their hemispheric distribution.
Haptic processing consists of the integration of data from multiple sources to
form a single percept. Previous research provides strong support for a
hierarchical and functional distribution within haptic processing. We
investigated hemispheric asymmetry in haptic discrimination of objects with
differing textures and centres of mass. By analogy with vision it was
hypothesised that participants would demonstrate a left-hand advantage for centre
of mass discrimination (a 'global', presumed right hemisphere, judgement) and a
right-hand advantage for surface texture judgements (a 'local', presumed left
hemisphere discrimination). We found that left-handed participants showed these
effects to a lesser degree than did the right-handers, consistent with the notion
that left-handed people generally show weaker asymmetries in bimanual tasks. In a
second experiment the effect of conflicting information on haptic percept
formation was investigated. Following from the previous hypotheses it was
predicted that participants would be more accurate with their right hands at
judging conflicting surfaces. Contrary to predictions an advantage was
demonstrated for the left hand for texture discrimination and for the right hand
for centre of mass judgement.
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Langue : ANGLAIS