Consolidation of the postural set during voluntary intermittent light finger contact as a function of hand dominance

Light fingertip contact with an earth-fixed referent decreases body sway. In a previous study Johannsen et al. (2014) demonstrated longer return-to-baseline of body sway for intermittent contacts of more than 2 seconds duration. This indicates that sway reduction with light tactile contact involves postural control strategies independent of the availability of tactile feedback and may depend on the intention to control body sway with light touch feedback. In the present study, we investigated the effect of hand dominance on post-contact return-to-baseline to probe for potential inter-hemispheric differences in the utilization of light finger contact for sway control. Twelve healthy, right-handed young adults stood in normal bipedal stance with eyes closed on a force plate with an earth-fixed referent directly in front. Acoustic signals instructed onset and removal of intermittent light touch. We found that return-to-baseline of sway following longer contact durations is affected by hand dominance with the dominant hand resulting in a slower return to No-contact levels of sway. Our results indicate that the light touch postural set is more persistent and might need longer to disengage when established with the dominant hand or takes longer to consolidate when established with the non-dominant hand.