Séminaire Jérôme Tagu
Postdoc, Attaché Temporaire d'Enseignement et de Recherche
Laboratoire de Psychologie Caen Normandie, EA 7452, Université de Caen Normandie
How sighting eye dominance influences visual perception and oculomotor control
Résumé : Humans show several lateral preferences: they are more likely to choose a given hand, foot and eye when writing, kicking the ball and using a microscope. If handedness has repeatedly been shown to influence visual perception and visuo-motor performance, the role of other lateral preferences in perception and action is less understood. In this talk, I will present perceptual and motor asymmetries linked to sighting eye dominance. The sighting dominant eye, i.e., the one used to perform monocular tasks, is anatomically and functionally linked to the ipsilateral primary visual cortex (V1). As such, it is also linked to the contralateral visual hemifield. I will review recent behavioral findings showing that this anatomo-functional relationship between the dominant eye and ipsilateral V1 affects our performance in attentional and visuo-motor tasks. I will also show how the influence of eye dominance on visuo-motor performance can be used as a tool to quantify the strength of eye dominance (i.e., identifying individuals with strong or weak eye dominance), and how it co-exists with other perceptual and motor asymmetries. Lastly, I will discuss these behavioral findings in the light of the neurophysiological bases of eye dominance and oculomotor control, highlighting the importance of considering functional asymmetries when studying visual perception and visuo-motor behaviors.
