Congruent Head Orientation in the Absence of Sight Facilitates Motor Performance
Abstract
(1) Background: During fine motor object manipulation, head orientation towards the workspace allows the small receptive fields in our cone-rich fovea to perceive details required to complete the task. Here, we investigated whether a head orientation benefit remains even when sight is unavailable. (2) Methods: Blindfolded, sighted participants reconstructed three-dimensional objects in 45-degree leftward, centered (0-degree), and 45-degree rightward workspaces in conditions when their head was oriented either towards (congruent) or away from (incongruent) the workspace. (3) Results: Performance times were found to be significantly faster when the head was oriented towards the workspace even though vision was occluded. Moreover, the same benefit was found regardless of workspace location, suggesting the effect is unrelated to comfort or experience. (4) Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate a motor performance time benefit when there is a congruency between head orientation and workspace location in the absence of sight. Head orientation may align the visual system with the target of action, thereby enabling representational detail akin to that provided by the small receptive fields in the cone-rich fovea. This is the first study demonstrating the benefit of head orientation in blindfolded, sighted individuals.