Crossing hands can curve saccades: Multisensory dynamics in saccades trajectories

Lauren Emberson, Rebecca J. Weiss, Adriano Barbosa, Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson, Michael Spivey
Poster
Last modified: 2008-05-15

Abstract


Crossing one’s hands across the midline can interfere with multisensory processing in both spatial and non-spatial tasks. The current experiment examines the crossed hand effect in a dynamic framework. Participants were asked to saccade to visual targets during concurrent manual vibro-tactile distraction. This tactile stimulation was presented on either the same or opposite side from the target and with hands crossed or uncrossed. Trajectories of the resulting saccades were analyzed for curvature. Consistent with previous findings, spatially incongruent trials in an uncrossed position resulted in a marginal saccade curvature compared to control trials. By contrast, the crossed hand condition resulted in significant curvature when compared to control trials regardless of spatial configuration. In other words, even when tactile stimulation of a crossed hand is spatially congruent with the visual target, the resulting saccades are significantly more curved than spatially congruent controls. Thus, the current study demonstrates that the role of sensory integration in eye movement dynamics is modulated by relative positions of the hands. These results create a link between known multisensory phenomena resulting from crossed hand positions and saccade trajectories. Findings are discussed in the context of the role of perception-action loops in real-time sensory integration.

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