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Original Articles

A Modified Finger Lift Test Reveals an Asymmetry of Motor Overflow in Adults

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Pages 498-510 | Accepted 21 Jul 1986, Published online: 04 Jan 2008
 

Abstract

A method of eliciting motor overflow in neurologically intact adults is reported. A weight was placed on either the middle or ring finger of the left or right hand, and the subject was instructed to lift that finger. Involuntary finger lifts of the contralateral hand were recorded. There were 32 right-handers per experiment. In Experiments I and II, the amount of weight placed on the subject's finger was in proportion to body weight, whereas in Experiment HI, it was in proportion to each finger's strength. Across experiments, motor overflow was more prevalent when the left, rather than the right, hand was weighted. This shows that the asymmetry in motor overflow previously reported in children and brain-damaged adults also occurs in healthy adults, and that this movement asymmetry is not an artifact of the relative weakness of the left hand in right-handed individuals.

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