1. Sex differences in implicit motor imagery: Evidence from the hand laterality task
- Author
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Francesco De Bellis, Monica Positano, Gennaro Raimo, Ines Ruggiero, Isa Zappullo, Chiara Baiano, Carmela Finelli, Luigi Trojano, Massimiliano Conson, Conson, M., De Bellis, F., Baiano, C., Zappullo, I., Raimo, G., Finelli, C., Ruggiero, I., Positano, M., and Trojano, L.
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Adult ,Male ,Left and right ,Imagery, Psychotherapy ,Mental transformation ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,Functional Laterality ,050105 experimental psychology ,Mental rotation ,Task (project management) ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Sex Factors ,Motor imagery ,0302 clinical medicine ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Orientation (mental) ,Visual familiarity ,Body Image ,Reaction Time ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Orientation, Spatial ,Motor simulation ,Hand laterality ,05 social sciences ,Recognition, Psychology ,General Medicine ,Hand ,Sex difference ,Motor rehabilitation ,Imagination ,Female ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Behavioural evidence suggest that males outperform females in mentally transforming objects, whereas whether sex differences exist in mentally transforming body part images (implicit motor imagery) is an open issue. The aim of the present study was to fill this gap testing performance of 360 healthy participants on a classical behavioural measure of implicit motor imagery: the hand laterality task. Participants had to judge handedness of hand images portrayed from back and palm and presented in different spatial orientations. Two main findings emerged. First, males were significantly faster than females in judging hands portrayed from palm, in particular left palms at 0°, 90° and 180° orientation, whereas females were faster than males in judging backs, in particular left and right backs at 0° and the left back at 90°. Second, both males and females showed a significant biomechanical effect (faster responses for hands portrayed in medial vs. lateral positions) while judging palms, albeit the effect was stronger in males, whereas only females showed a significant biomechanical effect when judging backs. Thus, males and females seem to differently exploit motor simulation processes during mental transformation of hand images depending on a specific familiarity with body parts portrayed from different views. This result might be taken into account when tailoring motor imagery tasks in applied contexts, as motor rehabilitation.
- Published
- 2020
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