The contributions of vision and haptics to reaching and grasping

Abstract

This review aims to provide a comprehensive outlook on the sensory (visual and haptic) contributions to reaching and grasping. The focus is on studies in developing children, normal, and neuropsychological populations, and in sensory-deprived individuals. Studies have suggested a right-hand/left-hemisphere specialization for visually guided grasping and a left-hand/right-hemisphere specialization for haptically guided object recognition. This poses the interesting possibility that when vision is not available and grasping relies heavily on the haptic system, there is an advantage to use the left hand. We review the evidence for this possibility and dissect the unique contributions of the visual and haptic systems to grasping. We ultimately discuss how the integration of these two sensory modalities shape hand preference.

Keywords: development; hand preference; handedness; haptically guided; haptics; sensorimotor integration; sensory deprivation; visually guided.

FIGURE 1

Experimental set-up and results from Stone and Gonzalez (2014a,b, 2015a,b). Photographs of participants completing (A) the Vision/Haptics condition (B) the Vision/Constrained-Haptics condition (note that the participant is wearing a pair of gloves) and (C) the No Vision/Haptics condition (note that the participant is wearing a blindfold) (D) Graph demonstrating right-hand use for grasping in percentage for the three sensory conditions in children and adults. White bars represent the Vision/Haptics condition. Gray bars represent the Vision/Constrained-Haptics condition. Black bars represent the No Vision/Haptics condition. The gray dashed line denotes 50% right-hand use (or equal use of each hand). Note the significant difference within sensory conditions.