The organization of visually-guided actions

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My research program investigates the roles of the right and the left hemispheres in the production of visually-guided actions. Understanding how each cerebral hemisphere integrates visual information and transforms it into goal-directed actions is fundamental to understanding the principles of human cerebral organization and function. Ten behavioural studies are proposed in which the right and left hands of right- and left-handed individuals will be assessed for visual/and visuomotor tasks. These studies are motivated by recent discoveries showing that visuomotor transformations for grasping appear to be unique to each cerebral hemisphere. The proposed studies are embedded within three major research projects aimed at answering the following questions: (1) To what extent and under what conditions are there left hemisphere advantages in processing visual information relevant to the vision-for-action system? (2) Do hand/hemispheric differences exist for different kinds of grasps and different components of the reach-to-grasp actions? (3) Are the interactions between the two visual systems different for the two hemispheres? By understanding how each cerebral hemisphere integrates visual and motor information, this research has the potential to: 1) explain motor deficits that appear after damage to the left or right hemispheres, 2) develop specific therapies tailored to those patients, and 3) provide insight into the origins of handedness.