Abstract
Several works have provided evidence of a resonant motor effect while observing a hand interacting with painful stimuli. The aim of this work is to show that participants are sensitive to the observation of an injured hand when they have to categorise an easily graspable object with their own hand. In Experiment 1, participants indicated whether or not photographs of objects (graspable or non-graspable, left or right oriented) could be grasped with their dominant hand, by tapping a key on a keyboard. Target objects were preceded by primes consisting of photographs of hands (injured vs healthy) in a grasping posture (power grasp). Experiment 2 consisted of two phases: In the first phase, participants had to categorise square or circle shapes. After their response (Group 1: tapping a key vs Group 2: constricting a hand grip), photograph of two types of hand (injured vs healthy) was displayed on the computer screen. In the second phase, participants had to indicate whether objects could be easily grasped with their dominant hand. Target objects were preceded by primes (square and circle) as shown in the first phase. Results show that response times were slower when the graspable target objects were right oriented and preceded by the photograph or a geometric shape associated with an injured hand. This response delay was accentuated in the handgrip condition. These results highlight that the view of an injured hand activates motor programme and pain mechanisms associated with participants relative to the consequences of the simulated grasping action.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
