Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Action coordination is one of the fundamental motor skills that humans need to acquire for their successful interaction with the environment. To study action coordination, one effective model is bimanual grasping, where the two hands reach-to-grasp a single object. Bimanual grasping is a particularly suitable model because it involves coordinating the two arms and hands in space and time, and hence, it relies on a delicate interplay between hemispheric coordination and specialization. Learning about the underlying mechanism can help us understand how the brain uses different strategies to integrate its action computations. The focus of my thesis is to investigate the underlying mechanisms of bimanual grasping, which to date has been largely ignored. The objective is to examine bimanual grasping from 3 perspectives: First, I will examine bimanual grasp at the visual input level, and specifically its performance across visual fields, which would give us insight into its hemispheric specialization (Experiments 1 and 2). Second, I will investigate the visuomotor neural mechanisms underlying bimanual grasping (Experiments 3 – 5). Third, I will examine the motor coordination mechanisms (Experiment 6). In general, the results show that bimanual grasping is predominantly controlled by the right hemisphere, specifically by brain areas typically involved in unimanual grasping. These findings have medical significance because they could help develop new rehabilitation programs for patients with motor deficits after cortical or hand/arm damage.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Ada Le
Language: English
Topic: Motor Control and Adaptation
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2601123318