Standard body-space relationships: Fingers hold spatial information

Romano, Daniele; Marini, Francesco; Maravita, Angelo

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.014

Cited by 26 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Our results strengthen the theoretical framework of a standard bodily spatial preferences (Romano et al, 2017) that adds to the somatotopic cortical mapping and the spatial localization relative to the egocentric space coordinates (de Vignemont, 2010; Longo, Azañón, & Haggard, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…In that case it has a strong preference for the bottom position, as highlighted in Experiment 1 and our previous study (Romano et al, 2017). The finding that we have stronger associations for the thumb down and another finger up when more than one finger has to be processed suggests that we are likely looking at the standard posture of the entire hand with our task.…”

Section: 25resultssupporting

confidence: 66%

“…The results of Experiment 1 are shown in Figure 2. We first analysed the thumb-index condition, which was identical to Romano et al (2017). These results show strong associations between fingers and spatial positions and provide a clear replication of the main results of Romano and colleagues (2017).…”

Section: Basic Contrasts (Block Analyses)supporting

confidence: 74%

“…One additional participant was excluded because she was unable to complete the task and was replaced. The effect found in our previous study was strikingly strong (Romano et al, 2017). A formal power analysis with the previous effect size of ƞ 2 p =0.80 and setting α=.05 and β=.95 showed that just 4 participants were required (G*Power 3.1 software).…”

Section: 12participantsmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…Each finger was on top of its contralateral homologue so that, for example, one thumb was just above the thumb of the other hand ( Fig. 1) (Marini et al, 2017;Romano et al, 2017). We adopted a symmetric set up, in terms or right-left and up-down distances; because it was shown that stimulator distances might affect perceptual judgment in similar setups (Marini et al, 2017).…”

Section: 14proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The standard posture of the hand.

Romano¹,

Tamè

Amoruso³

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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Perceived limb position is known to rely on sensory signals and motor commands. Another potential source of input is a standard representation of body posture, which may bias perceived limb position towards more stereotyped positions. Recent results show that tactile stimuli are processed more efficiently when delivered to a thumb in a relatively low position or an index finger in a relatively high position. This observation suggests that we may have a standard posture of the body that promotes a more efficient interaction with the environment. In this study, we mapped the standard posture of the entire hand by characterizing the spatial associations of all five digits. Moreover, we show that the effect is not an artefact of intermanual integration. Results showed that the thumb is associated with low positions, while the other fingers are associated with upper locations. Public Significance Recent results have shown that the thumb and index fingers have preferred spatial locations, with touch being perceived more quickly on the thumb when it is in a relatively low position and on the index finger when it is in a relatively high position. In this study, we mapped spatial associations across all five fingers. We report clear associations for all five fingers, with the thumb being associated with a relatively low position and all four other fingers being associated with a relatively high position. We propose that this position corresponds to the default posture of the hand, biasing perception, and potentially action, in all other postures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: 25resultssupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Basic Contrasts (Block Analyses)supporting

confidence: 74%

Section: 12participantsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: 14proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The standard posture of the hand.

Romano¹,

Tamè

Amoruso³

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The effect of hand position on perceived finger orientation in left- and right-handers

Fraser

Harris

2017

Exp Brain Res

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In the absence of visual feedback, the perceived orientation of the fingers is systematically biased. In right-handers these biases are asymmetrical between the left and right hands in the horizontal plane and may reflect common functional postures for the two hands. Here we compared finger orientation perception in right- and left-handed participants for both hands, across various hand positions in the horizontal plane. Participants rotated a white line on a screen optically superimposed over their hand to indicate the perceived position of the finger that was rotated to one of seven orientations with the hand either aligned with the body midline, aligned with the shoulder, or displaced by twice the shoulder-to-midline distance from the midline. We replicated the asymmetric pattern of biases previously reported in right-handed participants (left hand biased towards an orientation ~30° inward, right hand ~10° inward). However, no such asymmetry was found for left-handers, suggesting left-handers may use different strategies when mapping proprioception to body or space coordinates and/or have less specialization of function between the hands. Both groups’ responses rotated further outward as distance of the hand from the body midline increased, consistent with other research showing spatial orientation estimates diverge outward in the periphery. Finally, for right-handers, precision of responses was best when the hand was aligned with the shoulder compared to the other two conditions. These results highlight the unique role of hand dominance and hand position in perception of finger orientation, and provide insight into the proprioceptive position sense of the upper limbs.

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