Date Thesis Awarded

5-2009

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Kinesiology & Health Sciences

Advisor

Robert M. Kohl

Committee Members

Raymond W. McCoy

Robin C. Looft-Wilson

W. Larry Ventis

Abstract

Past motor control studies examining interlimb coordination using reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) tasks have not held the number of effectors constant, introducing an experimental confound. The present study sought to reevaluate the area studying bilateral and unilateral activation of the cerebral hemispheres using ipsilateral and contralateral tasks in a RT/MT study that tested the interhemispheric inhibition hypothesis while holding constant the number of effectors, and to determine if the pattern of results would generalize to a complex task. The data for RT/MT were recorded using a Fastec Imaging camera. The results demonstrated that ipsilateral RT/MT responses were significantly faster than contralateral ones, and that the pattern of results generalized when task complexity increased, with simple RT/MT responses being significantly faster than complex ones. There was no interaction between laterality and response. The pattern of results was consistent with the inhibition hypothesis. Future studies examining similar phenomena may find conclusive results lacking alternative explanations by controlling for the effector confound.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.

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