Effects of short-term hand immobilization on anticipatory mechanism for tool use
Psychological Research. 2023-04-17; :
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-023-01824-w
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Toussaint L(1), Bidet-Ildei C(2)(3), Scotto C(2), Badets A(4).
Author information:
(1)Université de Poitiers, Université François-Rabelais de Tours, CNRS, CeRCA,
UMR 7295, 86000, Poitiers, France. .
(2)Université de Poitiers, Université François-Rabelais de Tours, CNRS, CeRCA,
UMR 7295, 86000, Poitiers, France.
(3)Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
(4)Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, 33000, Bordeaux, France.
The short-term immobilization of a limb such as the right arm can impair
sensorimotor mechanisms, which in turn reduces motor control of this arm.
However, it is not known whether immobilization also impairs the anticipatory
mechanism for tool use without actual enactment. In two experiments, we asked
participants to judge how they would use a tool in a particular environment
(e.g., “Take the pencil to write on a sheet of paper”). Prior to this tool-use
judgment task, some participants had been immobilized (right arm) for 24 h.
Results revealed that compared to controls, immobilized participants performed
more poorly on the tool-use judgment task (accuracy and response time) as well
as in a manual dexterity task. As our tool-use judgment task involved
anticipating the expected perceptual effect of using a tool to achieve an
environmental goal (e.g., writing on a sheet of paper), our data are discussed
in line with theories of motor control (e.g., ideomotor theory) that emphasize
the expected perceptual consequences of the action.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany,
part of Springer Nature.