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PubMed1993

Reliability of the Lateral Dominance Examination.

The reliability of the Lateral Dominance Examination over a 5-year period was evaluated in 162 normal and neurologically impaired adults. Stability of individual test items was appraised as well as that of summary measures of handedness, eyedness, and footedness. Items evaluating handedness rendered highly consistent results with the most reliable item relating to hand used for writing (100%). Eyedness and footedness items were somewhat less reliable. While the data raised the possibility that non-right-handers may be slightly less consistent over time, membership in a neurological group, extent of impairment on neuropsychological tests, and gender were unrelated to consistency in lateral preference measurement. It is concluded that the Lateral Dominance Examination is a reliable measure of lateral preference.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Actigraphic investigations on the activity-rest behavior of right- and left-handed students.

The aim of this study was to explore differences between left-and right-handed subjects in sleep duration. Sleep and activity patterns were continuously registered for 12 days using actometers on 20 left-handed and 20 right-handed medical students in Berlin. Handedness was determined by a modified version of the Edinburgh handedness inventory. Each participant wore one actometer on each wrist. Actiwatch Sleep Analysis Software (CNT, UK) was used to evaluate the data, and statistical calculations were performed with a non-parametric variance analysis. A significant difference in mean sleep duration between left-handers (7.9 h) and right-handers (7.3 h) was determined (p=0.025 for measurement made on the dominant hand and p=0.013 for ones made on the non-dominant hand). In contrast, the maximal phase of daily activity (acrophase) did not show any difference between the two groups. The difference in sleep duration might be caused by either the greater effort required for left-handers to cope in a right-handed world or by structural brain differences.

Activity Cycles↗
PubMed2004

Individual differences in lateralisation of hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis.

Individual differences were investigated in the lateralisation of two general categories of hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis: (1) Vestibular-motor (V-M) hallucinations; comprising sensations of floating, flying, illusory locomotion and postural adjustments, out-of-body experiences (OBE), and autoscopy; and (2) Intruder hallucinations; incorporating a sense of the presence, and visual and auditory hallucinations of external, alien agents. Left-right lateralisation of such hallucinations, as well as handedness and footedness, were assessed in a diverse, nonclinical sample of 201 subjects participating in a web-based survey of sleep paralysis experiences. V-M hallucinations, but not Intruder hallucinations were predicted, based on the hypothesised distinctive neural sources of the different hallucinations, to be positively associated with handedness and footedness. Specifically, the predictions were based on the hypothesis that the activation of components of a vestibular, motor, and kinaesthetic bodily-self neuromatrix underlies V-M hallucinations, whereas a threat-activated vigilance system is responsible for Intruder hallucinations. As predicted, limb preferences were consistently found to be significantly and positively associated with a side bias of V-M, but not Intruder, hallucinations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Hand preference survey of 5136 school children in Western Uganda.

Few handedness studies have been conducted with African populations. Our preliminary survey of 5136 primary school students from 16 schools in Western Uganda (age range: 4 to 19 years old) found that 4.8% (n = 248) wrote left-handed. Of the 248 left-handed writers, there were more males (57.3%, n = 141) than females (42.7%, n = 105). The average frequency of left-handed writing in males was 5.6%, while the average for females was 4%. Of the 24 primary school teachers we interviewed, half (n = 12) expressed no desire to have left-handed students switch to writing right-handed, and 29% (n = 7) advised left-handed students to write with their right hands, but did not insist upon their doing so. Only 17% (n = 4) could be described as strongly urging left-handed students to switch writing hands, with one comment (4%) not applicable. While handedness is not defined by a single manual activity (especially one sensitive to social pressure), this survey documents the incidence of left-handed writing among primary school children of Western Uganda.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Leading limb preference during brachiation in the gibbon family member, Hylobates syndactylus (siamangs): a study of the effects of singing on lateralisation.

Individual-level lateralisations are common among vertebrates, however population-level preferences are usually reserved for specific tasks. In humans, handedness is thought to be related to the hemispheric processing of specific aspects of language, including speech. Although nonhuman primates do not possess speech, gibbons are known to produce elaborate vocal displays often referred to as song. To investigate the evolutionary effects of singing on hand preference, this study examined leading limb preference during brachiation in the large-bodied, melodious gibbon, Hylobates syndactylus (siamangs). A total of 13 male and 12 female siamangs were observed in captive and semi-captive settings for leading limb preference during vocal and nonvocal behaviour. No significant results were found for the effect of vocalisation at the group level, although individual-level data indicated a trend towards a right shift in the vocal condition, especially for females, where 8 out of 12 demonstrated a greater reliance on a right leading limb during the vocal versus nonvocal conditions. Males were not found to possess significant preferences in either the vocal or nonvocal conditions alone, however when condition data were combined, the number of individual males lateralised was significantly greater than predicted by chance. These findings support individual, but not population-level, effects for vocalisation on leading limb preference in siamangs, and emphasise the importance of testing for sex difference in handedness and lateralisation research.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Deriving estimates of contralateral footedness from prevalence rates in samples of Brazilian and non-Brazilian right- and left-handers.

Although footedness is closely associated with handedness, accurate prevalence rates of contralateral footedness in right- and left-handed populations were previously unavailable to researchers studying the relationship between phenotypic and hemispheric asymmetries. We collected preference data from 2081 Brazilian children and adolescents, and relate the prevalence of crossed hand/foot preferences to values reported elsewhere in the literature. In our samples, about 4% of the dextrals and 33% of the sinistrals exhibited a contralateral kicking preference. This is in close agreement with the weighted means from our analysis of 19 papers in the literature, which yields 4.0% left-footed kicking in dextrals and 33.5% right-footed kicking in sinistrals. These values are in marked contrast to the 50% figure for right-footed kicking in sinistrals as given by MacNeilage and colleagues (1988, 1991). Among Brazilians with mixed handedness, there was a substantial increase in incongruent footedness. Male consistent right- and left-handers showed a higher prevalence of cross-footed preferences in their kicking preference than females. The sex difference in dextrals was attributed to a training effect in soccer-related activities, and to a sampling bias in sinistrals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Does the presence of psychological distress in patients influence their choice of sitting position in face-to-face consultation with the GP?

Evidence exists that when a person is required to position him/herself to the right or left of another during a face-to-face encounter, the orientation chosen is influenced by the biases of visual attention. It is also known that such attentive biases may be disturbed in states of anxiety and depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether an association could be found between the presence of psychological distress in patients and their choice of lateral orientation relative to the doctor during face-to-face consultations. Patients routinely attending their GP (the author) were obliged to choose to sit either to the right or left for the face-on encounter. They then completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire (HADS), its two subscales (0-21) measuring symptoms of anxiety and depression reported by patients. "Cases" of anxiety and/or depression were identified as those patients who scored > 8 on either or both subscales. Of the 756 patients studied, case status was significantly associated with seating preference (p = .001): 234 (58%) cases sitting on the left versus 107 (30%) non-cases. Handedness was not directly associated with seating preference, but did modify the case status-seating preference association. Thus among right-handers 213 (59%) cases sat on the left versus 85 (27%) non-cases, giving an odds ratio (sitting on the left) for cases versus non-cases of 4.0. For left-handers the odds ratio (sitting left) for cases versus non-cases was 0.54, although the small number of left-handers precluded statistical significance being achieved in this group. These results support the notion that orienting behaviour is influenced by biases of visual attention linked to handedness and that attentive biases may be disturbed in states of anxiety and depression.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Orientation of the stethoscope around the neck: a random phenomenon or an indicator of cerebral lateralisation? Cross-sectional survey.

This study aimed to determine whether the orientation of the stethoscope when placed around the neck by physicians is a random occurrence or if this represents a lateral preference. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted, recruiting 186 medical doctors of all grades from the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. Stethoscope orientation preference, and seven other measures of lateral preference (handedness, footedness, eyedness, earedness, hand clasping, arm folding, and leg crossing), were assessed. The percentage of right-type, left-type, and indifferent-type orientation for each of the eight lateral preferences was determined, and 60%, 35%, and 5% of participants demonstrated right, left, and indifferent stethoscope orientation types, respectively. Stethoscope orientation preference correlated with handedness, footedness, earedness, and hand-clasping, but not with eyedness, arm-folding, or leg-crossing. Stethoscope orientation preference is not a chance phenomenon and may be an expression of cerebral dominance.

Adult↗
PubMed2007

Ethological study of manual laterality in naturalistic housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) from the Mona Foundation Sanctuary (Girona, Spain).

During recent years, handedness of nonhuman primates has been the subject of several studies, especially focused on our closest relatives: the chimpanzees. These studies have dealt with both wild and captive chimpanzees, and they seem to point to divergent conclusions, which have been interpreted as a by-product of the human influence in the captive samples. Here we present the results of a study of 10 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In the past, they were trained in circus and marketing tasks (humanised behaviours), until they were confiscated and accepted into the Mona Foundation (in northeast Spain) in 2000, where they live in a semi-naturalistic environment. This study has been performed through observational bouts without systematic human influence, recording the actions carried out by chimpanzees when performing spontaneous activities. Our results indicate that chimpanzees that were under strong human influence in the past show the same trend in handedness as those living in freedom: few significant lateralities were observed among either individuals or tasks. So, laterality may not be influenced by humanisation. However, this conclusion must be taken as preliminary because very few individuals were studied.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Hand preferences and hand ability in congenitally blind children.

Congenitally blind and sighted blindfolded children between the ages of 6 and 14 years were tested for hand preference with performance tasks. There were no differences between the groups in direction or degree of hand preference. The degree of handedness increased with age and was essentially linear though the blind seemed to be somewhat less lateralized at the younger ages. When the same groups were required to match three-dimensional bricks for height, depth, breadth, and volume, no hand advantages were found for either group. Both groups of children improved in their accuracy of spatial discriminations with age. Further, the degree of lateralization on the handedness task did not relate to ability on the tactile task or to differences between the right and left hands on the tactile task. Thus, there is no effect of blindness on tactile matching ability nor is there an effect of the hand used in the task.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Posture and reaching in tufted capuchins (Cebus apella).

This research investigated the effects of posture on lateral bias for food reaching in tufted capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) by comparing hand preferences for quadrupedal and bipedal reaching. Several findings of this investigation warrant discussion. First, we found a population-level bias towards use of the right hand for bipedal reaching but not for quadrupedal reaching. Second, adults exhibited a greater right-hand preference for bipedal reaching than did immatures. Third, subjects showed a greater right-hand preference, and a greater strength of preference independent of direction, for bipedal reaching than for quadrupedal reaching. Fourth, we found a significant positive relation between the direction of hand preference for quadrupedal and bipedal reaching. We believe that capuchins provide an alternative primate model to chimpanzees for the evolution of human bipedalism and right-handedness. One implication of this model is that right-handedness emerged in hominids prior to extensive expansion of brain size and elaboration of material culture.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

The relation between hand preference and hand performance: what you get depends on what you measure.

In the present investigation, we addressed the relation between manual preference and performance. A total of 52 right-handers and 48 left-handers were tested for manual proficiency and preferences using a range of tasks. Self-professed right-and left-handers showed greater preference for, and superior performance with, the preferred hand. Left-handers use their nonpreferred hand more often and in some instances are more skilled with it than right-handers. There was a subgroup of persons with mixed handedness, who identified themselves as left-handed, wrote with the left hand, and were more skilled with the left hand on dot-filling, but who were otherwise right-handed. Overall, the data indicated that a complete description of handedness will only be provided by careful consideration of the nature of the preference and performance measures one uses.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Eye-dominance, writing hand, and throwing hand.

Handedness and eye-dominance are undoubtedly associated statistically, although a previous meta-analysis has found that the precise relationship is difficult to explain, with about 35% of right-handers and 57% of left-handers being left eye dominant. Of particular difficulty to genetic or other models is that the proportions are distributed asymmetrically around 50%. The present study asked whether this complicated pattern of association occurred because, following Peters, it is necessary to divide right-and left-handers into consistent handers (who write and throw with the same hand) and inconsistent handers (who write and throw with opposite hands). In an analysis of 10,635 subjects from questionnaire studies, 28.8% of left-handers and 1.6% of right-handers by writing were inconsistent for throwing. Our results also showed that writing hand and throwing hand both relate independently to eyedness, that throwing hand is somewhat more strongly associated with eyedness, and that the awkward asymmetry around 50% is now removed, 24.2% of consistent right-handers being left eye dominant compared with 72.3% of consistent left-handers, and 55.4% of inconsistent right-handers compared with 47.0% of inconsistent left-handers. We conclude that eyedness is phenotypically secondary to writing and throwing handedness. In our discussion we note that eyedness runs in families, we present new data suggesting that writing hand and throwing hand are co-inherited, and we argue that further data are now required to model properly the associations of writing hand, throwing hand, and eyedness, as well as probably also footedness and language dominance.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Laterality of hand, foot, eye, and ear in twins.

Information on handedness, footedness, eyedness, and earedness was collected from 33 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs and 67 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. The incidence of nonright-sidedness in the twins is not higher than that reported in the literature for singletons. Similar results are found for the other lateralities. The results of assessing handedness with preference tests do not differ from those carried out with performance tests. There are no differences in incidence of nonright-sidedness between MZ and DZ twins. The concordance of lateralities is similar in MZ and DZ twins. The proportions of Right-Right, Right-Nonright, and Nonright-Nonright pairs in both groups of twins show a binomial distribution. The present results do not confirm a genetic hypothesis of determination of sidedness in humans and are comparable with the results obtained by other twin studies.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Quantitative assessment of five behavioural laterality measures: distributions of scores and intercorrelations among right-handers.

Five behavioural laterality measures (degree of right-handedness, ear dominance, ocular dominance, line bisection performance, and lateral preference as assessed by preferred direction of conjugate lateral eye movements) were analysed in 1171 right-handers by merging data from 15 different samples. All laterality aspects were assessed quantitatively by using well controlled performance measures instead of questionnaires. The distributions and intercorrelations of the measures as well as their test-retest reliabilities were examined. Results show moderately high reliabilities for all measures, and clearly demonstrate considerable variability among dextrals in the direction and magnitude of the obtained behavioural laterality measures. Most importantly, independence of the different measures questions some common assumptions in laterality research. It seems unlikely, for instance, that handedness and other aspects of laterality may be a product of one single underlying mechanism of brain lateralisation.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Developmental instability and right shift theory hypotheses concerning correlates of familial sinistrality: negative findings.

Both the right shift (Annett, 1985) and developmental instability (Yeo & Gangestad, 1993) theories of handedness predict that familial sinistrality (FS) should relate to hand skill asymmetries (HSA) on peg-moving tasks. Annett also hypothesises that both HSA and a procedure she derived for classifying individuals according to the pattern of their hand preferences for different manual activities can index the genotypes posited in her theory, i.e. she believes these variables are highly correlated. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 280 dextral college students. Results failed to support the finding of Gangestad and Yeo (1994) that subjects showing greater hand skill asymmetry deviations from typical asymmetry had a greater probability of having a left-handed parent. There was also no support for Annett's finding that greater dextrality, as defined by her hand preference classification system, was negatively associated with familial sinistrality. Additionally, the relationship between HSA and Annett's hand preference classes was found to be exceedingly weak, contrary to Annett's theorising. These and other failures to find highly replicable differences between FS- and FS+ dextrals cast doubt on the validity of genetic or partial-genetic theories of handedness that posit a ''penetrance'' of a recessive non-dextrality-favouring gene that causes presumed dextral heterozygotic persons to differ from presumed homozygotic dominant persons in cognitive or manual skills.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Risk factors for proximal humerus fracture.

This case-control study of proximal humerus fracture included 448 incident female and male cases and 2,023 controls aged 45 years or older identified in five Northern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers in 1996-2001. Data were collected by using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Some factors related to low bone mass, including number of fractures since age 45 years and low dietary calcium intake, were associated with increased risks of fracture, and factors thought to protect against bone loss, such as menopausal hormone therapy and calcium carbonate tablet use, were associated with reduced risks. Fall-related risk factors included previous falls, diabetes mellitus, and difficulty walking in dim light. Possible fall-related risk factors suggested for the first time in this study were seizure medication use (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.45, 5.42), depression (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.84), almost always using a hearing aid (OR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.12, 3.31 vs. never prescribed), and left-handedness (OR = 2.36, 95% CI: 1.51, 3.68 vs. right-handedness). Difficulty with activities of daily living and lack of physical activity tended to be associated with increased risk. Prevention of falls among frail, osteoporotic persons would likely reduce the frequency of proximal humerus fracture.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed1992

Anatomical asymmetries and functional laterality.

Anatomical and functional asymmetries were measured using MRI and dichotic, visual field and hand performance laterality tasks in 104 normal right- and left-handed male and female adults. Comprehensive linear and area measures showed consistently larger brains when handedness and language laterality were in the same direction. Right-handers with left cerebral dominance for dichotic listening and left-handers with right cerebral dominance had larger structures. Hand performance was the strongest functional laterality related to anatomical asymmetries. Left hemisphere dominance on this task was associated with larger right frontal and left occipital widths. Dichotic listening or visual field laterality alone was not associated with contralaterally larger temporal, parietal or occipital measurements. Left visual field dominance for reading, interacting with right-handedness, was associated with wider left parietal width. The complex associations between anatomical and functional asymmetries contribute to individual differences in cerebral organization. The demonstrated association of coincident hand performance and language laterality measures with larger anatomical structures may confer biological advantage. Morphometric analysis in vivo may have increasing importance in interpreting behaviour.

Adult↗