Transfer of weight information depends differently on used hand and handedness for perception and action

Abstract

When lifting an object sequentially with the two hands, information about object weight can be transferred from one hand to the other. This information can be used to predictively scale fingertip forces and to form a perceptual estimation about the object’s weight. This study investigated how weight information can be transferred between the two hands and how this depends on the used hand and handedness of the participant. Right- and left-handed participants lifted light and heavy objects with the right or left hand in a pseudorandomized order and estimated the object’s weight. Results showed that predictive force scaling depended on the previously lifted object, with higher force rates if a previous object was heavy. This known effect of sensorimotor memory was mostly independent of the used hand and handedness, indicating that weight information could be transferred across hands for fingertip force scaling. Furthermore, a perceptual bias that depended on the previous lifted object was found, with lower weight estimations when the previous object was heavy compared to light. While this bias was found for both light and heavy objects in right-handers, it was only observed for light objects in left-handers. Notably, in contrast to the results on force scaling, this effect was not transferred across hands. These findings indicate that the transfer of weight information depends differently on the used hand and handedness for perceptual estimations and predictive force scaling.