The aims of the present study were to compare matching performance between ipsilateral and contralateral finger force matching tasks and to examine the effect of handedness on finger force perception. Eleven subjects were instructed to produce reference forces by an instructed finger (index -I or little -L finger) and to reproduce the same amount force by the same or a different finger within the hand (i.e., ipsilateral matching task), or by a finger of the other hand (i.e., contralateral matching task). The results of the ipsilateral and contralateral tasks in the present study commonly showed that 1) the reference and matching forces were matched closely when the two forces were produced by the same or homologous finger(s) such as I/I task; 2) the weaker little finger underestimated the magnitude of reference force of the index finger (I/L task), even with the higher level of effort (relative force), but the two forces were matched when considering total finger forces; 3) the stronger index finger closely matched the reference force of the little finger with the lower level of relative force (i.e., L/I task); 4) when considering the constant errors, I/L tasks showed an underestimation and L/I tasks showed an overestimation compared to I/I tasks. There was no handedness effect during ipsilateral tasks. During the contralateral task, the dominant hand overestimated the force of the non-dominant hand, while the non-dominant hand attempted to match the absolute force of the dominant hand. The overall results support the notion that the absolute, rather than relative, finger force is perceived and reproduced during ipsilateral and contralateral finger force matching tasks, indicating the uniqueness of finger force perception.

The effect of fatigue on finger force perception within a hand during ipsilateral finger force matching was examined. Thirteen subjects were instructed to match a reference force of an instructed finger using the same or different finger within the hand before and after index finger fatigue. Absolute reference force targets for the index or little finger were identical during pre-and post-fatigue sessions. Fatigue was induced by a 60-s sustained maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the index finger. Index finger MVC decreased approximately 29%, while there was a non-significant (about 5%) decrease in the little finger MVC. The results showed that: 1) The absolute reference and matching forces of the instructed fingers were not significantly changed after fatigue, while the total forces (sum of instructed and uninstructed finger forces) were increased after fatigue. 2) The relative forces (with respect to corresponding pre-and post-fatigue MVCs) of the index finger increased significantly in both reference and matching tasks, while the relative forces of the little finger remained unchanged after fatigue. 3) Matching errors remained unchanged after fatigue when the fatigued index finger produced the reference force, while the errors increased significantly when the fatigued index finger produced the matching force. 4) Enslaving (difference between total and instructed finger forces) increased significantly after fatigue, especially during force production by the fatigued index finger and when the little finger produced matching forces at higher force levels. 5) Enslaving significantly increased matching errors particularly after fatigue. Taken together, our results suggest that absolute finger forces within the hand are perceived within the CNS during ipsilateral finger force matching. Perception of absolute forces of the fatigued index finger is not altered after fatigue. The ability of the fatigued index finger to reproduce little finger forces is impaired to a certain degree, however. The impairment is likely to be attributable to altered afferent/ efferent relationships of the fatigued index finger.