HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (13) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Diedrichsen, J. Articles by Ivry, R. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Diedrichsen, J. Articles by Ivry, R. B.

The Role of the Corpus Callosum in the Coupling of Bimanual Isometric Force Pulses

¹ Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-5800; ² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2195; ³ National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center, Moffett Field 94035; ⁴ Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-5800

Submitted 17 March 2003; accepted in final form 3 July 2003

Two split-brain patients, a patient with callosal agenesis, and 6 age-matched control participants were tested on a bimanual force production task. The participants produced isometric responses with their index fingers, attempting to match the target force specified by a visual stimulus. On unimanual trials, the stimuli were presented in either the left or right visual field and the response was made with the ipsilateral hand. On bimanual trials, two stimuli were presented, one on each side, and the target forces could be either identical or different. Bimanual responses of the control subjects showed strong evidence of coupling. Forces produced by one hand were influenced by the forces produced by the other hand with positive correlations observed for all target force combinations. These assimilation effects and correlations were greatly attenuated in the acallosal group, with similar results observed for the split-brain patients and participant with callosal agenesis. Furthermore, the processes involved in selecting and planning the two responses occurred independently in the acallosal group; in contrast to the controls, the three acallosal participants exhibited no differences in reaction times or accuracy between bimanual trials in which the two target forces were the same or different. We also found a striking temporal desynchronization of the responses in the split-brain patients, indicating that in this context, temporal coupling is impaired after callosotomy. These results are congruent with the hypothesis that interference related to response selection and planning of bimanual force pulses arises from callosal interactions.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Hazeltine, A. Weinstein, and R. B. Ivry Parallel response selection after callosotomy. J. Cogn. Neurosci., March 1, 2008; 20(3): 526 - 540. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. S. Soteropoulos and S. N. Baker Different Contributions of the Corpus Callosum and Cerebellum to Motor Coordination in Monkey J Neurophysiol, November 1, 2007; 98(5): 2962 - 2973. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I. Derakhshan, J. Diedrichsen, E. Hazeltine, and R. B. Ivry Hugo Liepmann revisited, this time with numbers J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2004; 91(6): 2934 - 2935. [Full Text] [PDF]