Asymmetrical intermanual transfer of learning in a sensorimotor task

• Published in: Experimental brain research Vol. 202; no. 4; pp. 927 - 934
• Main Authors: Kirsch, Waldemar, Hoffmann, Joachim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag 01.05.2010; Springer-Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Female; Fingers; Functional Laterality; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hand; Handedness; Humans; Learning; Male; Motor control and motor pathways. Reflexes. Control centers of vegetative functions. Vestibular system and equilibration; Motor learning; Motor Skills; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Neurosciences; Physiological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Research Note; Sensorimotor integration; Transfer (Psychology); Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Young Adult; United States; Sensorimotor learning; SRT; Intermanual transfer; Sequence learning; Learning; Human; Acquisition process; Reaction time; Stimulus sequence; Hand; Posture
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-010-2184-8

We examined the influence of the hand employed in sensorimotor learning on the acquired sequence knowledge in a serial reaction time task. Right-handed subjects trained either with the dominant or with the nondominant hand sequences of finger postures in response to a corresponding stimulus sequence. In the course of training, they were repeatedly asked to switch to the opposite hand, either responding to the original stimulus sequence with nonhomologues fingers or to the mirror-ordered sequence of stimuli with homologues fingers. When the right hand was used at acquisition, transfer to the same stimulus sequence increased with practice. In contrast, when the left hand was trained, transfer to the homologues finger sequence increased with practice. The results indicate qualitative differences in the acquired sequence knowledge controlling the dominant and the nondominant arm systems.