Close women, distant men: line bisection reveals sex-dimorphic patterns of visuomotor performance in near and far space

The mid-points of a series of lines which were positioned both within hand-reach (near space) and beyond hand-reach (far space) were estimated by 24 women and 24 men. When using a laser pointer to perform estimations, women were more accurate in the near condition than the far, whereas men were more accurate in the far condition than the near. When using a stick pointer for the far condition, women were more accurate than when using the laser, whereas men were more accurate using the laser pointer than the stick for the far condition. There was no difference between near and far accuracy scores for either sex using the stick. These results suggest that use of a tool which provides proprioceptive feedback causes the brain to remap far-space stimuli as if situated in near space. Possible origins and neural bases for these differences are considered. Finally, the study found evidence for pseudoneglect, but no evidence for pseudoneglect shift.