Hemispheric asymmetry in hand preference of right-handers for passive vibrotactile perception: an fNIRS study

Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 7;10(1):13423. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-70496-y.

Abstract

Hemispheric asymmetry in hand preference for passive cutaneous perception compared to active haptic perception is not well known. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to evaluate the laterality of cortical facilitation when 31 normal right-handed participants were involved in 205 Hz passive vibrotactile cutaneous stimuli on their index fingers of preferred and less-preferred hand. Passive cutaneous perception resulted that preferred (right) hand stimulation was strongly leftward lateralized, whereas less-preferred (left) hand stimulation was less lateralized. This confirms that other manual haptic exploration studies described a higher hemispheric asymmetry in right-handers. Stronger cortical facilitation was found in the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and right somatosensory association area (SA) during left-hand stimulation but not right-hand stimulation. This finding suggests that the asymmetric activation in the S1 and SA for less-preferred (left) hand stimulation might contribute to considerably reinforce sensorimotor network just with passive vibrotactile cutaneous stimulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Functional Laterality / physiology
  • Hand / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Perception / physiology*
  • Physical Stimulation*
  • Skin Physiological Phenomena*
  • Somatosensory Cortex / diagnostic imaging
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology*
  • Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
  • Touch Perception / physiology*
  • Vibration*