Abstract
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.
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This work was supported by a grant from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France).
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The authors declare that they have made substantial contributions to the conception of the present study. They contributed to the acquisition, analyses and interpretation of data. They drafted and revised the work critically and approved the later version of the manuscript.
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All aspects of this study were performed in accordance with the ethical standards set out in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. The study was conducted in accordance with national standards and guidelines for the protection of human participants and was approved by the local ethics committee (Internal review code 202054). All participants gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study and received either course credits or €20 for their participation. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Toussaint, L., Bidet-Ildei, C., Scotto, C. et al. Effects of short-term hand immobilization on anticipatory mechanism for tool use. Psychological Research 87, 2407–2418 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01824-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01824-w