Peri-hand space representation in the absence of a hand – Evidence from congenital one-handers

The space immediately surrounding us is known to be represented relative to our hands, i.e. in a hand-centred coordinate system (peri-hand space, PHS) (Graziano, Hu, & Gross, 1997; for review see; Brozzoli, Makin, Cardinali, Holmes, & Farn e, 2012). Individuals born without a hand (hereafter onehanders) manually interact with the world differently, potentially altering the representation of their near space. Previous behavioural research on PHS representation in onehanders and acquired amputees found evidence of a mild visuospatial bias against their missing hand side (Makin, Wilf, Schwartz, & Zohary, 2010), suggesting that hand loss impacts visual processing.