Manual Skills, Handedness, and the Organization of Language in the Brain

This Research Topic aims to highlight the findings on the relationships between lower and higher-order manual skills such as pointing, reaching and grasping, pantomimed, and/or real use of objects, including tools, the eye movements associated with performance of these tasks, as well as their neural underpinnings. Findings suggesting similarities and disparities in the neural organization of these skills in left-handed and ambidextrous individuals, as compared to typical right-handers, will be featured. The studies on possible links between the control of higher-level motor cognition and language are also welcome.

To encourage an interdisciplinary debate, attempts will be made to attract representatives of research from the outside of psychology, e.g., kinesiology and neuroscience. As a result, the methodology used to investigate the highlighted themes is open, and in addition to simple response time and accuracy-based studies, may involve research on hand kinematics and/or associated eye movements, including the utilization of transcranial magnetic stimulation, as well as neuroimaging (EEG and/or fMRI). Regardless of the methodological approach, the emphasis should be on psychological or cognitive mechanisms mediating the studied phenomena and functions.