Elsevier

Brain and Language

Volume 39, Issue 2, August 1990, Pages 319-330
Brain and Language

Asymmetrical transfer of braille acquisition between hands

https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(90)90017-BGet rights and content

Abstract

Two experiments are presented which demonstrate asymmetrical transfer for tactual recognition of individual braille letters in sighted subjects, a task usually associated with right hemisphere specialization. Right-handers were studied in Experiment 1, left- and right-handers in Experiment 2. Poor transfer of training from the right hand to the left hand was observed for right-handed subjects in both experiments. The same was true for one group of left-handers (who wrote with the “inverted” position). For another group (who wrote with the “non-inverted” position), no disadvantage was associated with opposite-hand training for either hand. The role of hemispheric specialization of function in determining the direction of greater transfer is discussed, and it is argued that handwriting posture may be an index of the degree of functional “connectedness” of the two hemispheres in left-handers.

References (33)

Cited by (33)

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    However, other studies have reported that handedness has no influence on transfer of motor practice effects across the arms (Balitsky Thompson and Henriques, 2010; Stockinger et al., 2015). While earlier studies tended to examine transfer of tasks such as finger tapping (Laszlo et al., 1970) keyboard pressing (Taylor and Heilman, 1980), and writing (Parlow and Kinsbourne, 1989, 1990), more recent studies have focused on adaptation to environmental perturbations during reaching, a paradigm that allows for the quantification of the extent of transfer, as well as assessing the coordinate system governing transfer. In the case of adaptation to novel force fields imposed by programmable robotic devices, some studies reported asymmetries in the direction and extent of transfer (Sainburg, 2002; Criscimagna-Hemminger et al., 2003; Wang and Sainburg, 2004a; Duff and Sainburg, 2006; Schabowsky et al., 2007; Yadav and Sainburg, 2014b; Lefumat et al., 2015), while Stockinger et al. recently reported complete symmetry in transfer of adaptation to velocity-dependent curl-fields imposed by a robotic device.

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Partial funding was provided by fellowships from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Alberta Heritage Foundation Medical Research to S.E.P.

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