Original scientific paper

The effect of long-term bimanual training on arm selection during reaching tasks

Selcuk Akpinar orcid.org/0000-0002-9551-237X ; Department of Physical Education and Sports Education, Faculty of Education, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Turkey

Abstract

Handedness is viewed either as a preference or an asymmetry in sensorimotor performance. It has been shown that there is a relation between sensorimotor performance and hand selection. This relation is affected by the manipulation of sensory feedback, suggesting an effect of task condition on hand selection, and by a unimanual athletic training. Thus, in the current study, the aim was to find out if arm selection and symmetry were affected by a long-term bimanual practice with respect to motor performance. Right-handed rowers
and non-rowers were tested on sensorimotor performance for both arms and its correspondence to plausible changes in the pattern of hand selection during a reaching task. EZ Kinetics KineReach System (2014) was used for data collection. It was hypothesized that the rowers would express less interlimb asymmetry compared to the non-rowers, which in turn, would lead them to display a different pattern of hand selection. Consistent with the hypothesis, the rowers improved their relative performance for both arms, thus performance appeared to be more symmetrical for the rowers than for the non-rowers. Symmetric performance for the rowers led them to have more symmetrical hand choices compared to the non-rowers. Arm selection resulting from interlimb performance differences can be affected by a long-term bimanual practice.

Keywords

arm selection; motor asymmetry; lateralization; rowers; bimanual training

Hrčak ID:

150550

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/150550

Publication date:

31.12.2015.

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