  In humans, body segments' position and movement can be estimated from
multiple senses such as vision and proprioception. It has been suggested that
vision and proprioception can influence each other and that upper-limb
proprioception is asymmetrical, with proprioception of the non-dominant arm
being more accurate and/or precise than proprioception of the dominant arm.
However, the mechanisms underlying the lateralization of proprioceptive
perception are not yet understood. Here we tested the hypothesis that early
visual experience influences the lateralization of arm proprioceptive
perception by comparing 8 congenitally-blind and 8 matched, sighted
right-handed adults. Their proprioceptive perception was assessed at the elbow
and wrist joints of both arms using an ipsilateral passive matching task.
Results support and extend the view that proprioceptive precision is better at
the non-dominant arm for blindfolded sighted individuals. While this finding
was rather systematic across sighted individuals, proprioceptive precision of
congenitally-blind individuals was not lateralized as systematically,
suggesting that lack of visual experience during ontogenesis influences the
lateralization of arm proprioception.
