Handedness: A Behavioral Laterality Manifestation
Published 1 January 2009
Ira B. Perelle, Lee Ehrman
Citations2
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Lefthanders, approximately 10% of the population, write with their left hand and scientists are interested in lefthanders because they are particularly interested in things that differ from the norm.
Abstract
Because we are, respectively, a psychologist and a geneticist, though only one of us is a lefthander, we view handedness as an adapted and adaptive behavioral phenotype. Handbook utilizers are referred to relevant chapters herein by Neal, Cherny, Posthuma, Ulbricht, and Neiderhiser covering: Biometrical Models QTL Methodology Multivariate Analysis Genotype–Environment Interaction
Keywords
MathematicsNeuroscienceBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
NeuropsychologiaThe assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory
36,704 Citations1971R. C. Oldfield
An inventory of 20 items with a set of instructions and response- and computational-conventions is proposed and the results obtained from a young adult population numbering some 1100 individuals are reported.
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesLeft-handedness: association with immune disease, migraine, and developmental learning disorder.
1,177 Citations1982Norman Geschwind, Peter O. Behan
An experimental study designed to test the following hypothesis derived from clinical observations: There is an elevated frequency in left-handed individuals and in their families of immune disease, migraine, and developmental learning disorders and finds markedly higher frequencies in the left- handers than in the right-handers.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciencesConditions of innovative behaviour in primates
466 Citations1985Hans Kummer, Jane Goodall
It is proposed that more attention should be given to what conditions of innovative behaviour are and where they are realized in natural groups of non-human primates.
Behavioral and Brain SciencesOn the biological basis of human laterality: I. Evidence for a maturational left–right gradient
416 Citations1978Michael C. Corballis, Michael J. Morgan
It is suggested that right-handedness and leftcerebral dominance for language are manifestations of an underlying gradient which is probably coded in the cytoplasm rather than in the genes.
Psychological BulletinLeft-handedness: A marker for decreased survival fitness.
336 Citations1991Stanley Coren, Diane F. Halpern
Evidence suggests that left-handedness may be a marker for birth stress related neuropathy, developmental delays and irregularities, and deficiencies in the immune system due to the intrauterine hormonal environment.
CortexPathological Left-Handedness: An Explanaory Model
335 Citations1972Paul Satz
A model was discussed which attempts to account for the raised incidence of manifest left-handedness in brain-injured populations, particularly mentally retarded and epileptic, and generated a number of testable hypotheses, some of which were logically derived from the model.
ScienceVariations in Writing Posture and Cerebral Organization
311 Citations1976Jerre Levy, Marylou Reid
Two tachistoscopic tests of cerebral lateralization showed that females and subjects having an inverted hand posture manifested smaller degrees of lateral differentiation than males and subjects with a typical hand posture.
Behavior GeneticsAn international study of human handedness: The data
307 Citations1994Ira B. Perelle, Lee Ehrman
Methods for determining handedness, the probability of a genetic component forhandedness, and the relationship of sex, birth order, multiple birth, and first-degree relative's handedness on subject'shandedness are discussed.
Archives of NeurologyThe Neuropsychology of Learning Disorders
295 Citations1977Allyson Lucinda Benton
GeneticsA MODEL FOR THE GENETICS OF HANDEDNESS
244 Citations1972Jerre Levy, Thomas Nagylaki
A two-gene, four-allele model, one locus pertaining to left or right hemispheric dominance and the other to contralateral or ipsilateral hand control relative to the dominant hemisphere, is constructed and is in excellent agreement with all quantitative information regarding this problem.
Journal of Comparative Physiology ALeft hypoglossal dominance in the control of canary and white-crowned sparrow song
240 Citations1976Fernando Nottebohm, Marta E. Nottebohm
Left hypoglossal dominance occurs in canaries with small or large song repertoires, in chronically deafened canaries that never had access to their own auditory feedback, and in birds that had the right or left cochlea removed at an early age.
Psychological ReviewThe genetics and evolution of handedness.
214 Citations1997Michael C. Corballis
Simulations show that the D allele could have spread quite quickly through a population, given even a minuscule advantage of CD heterozygotes over CC and DD homozygotes in terms of reproductive fitness.
Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
201 Citations2011Elizabeth Finger, Kirk R. Daffner
Evidence for current diagnostic and treatment approaches for each of these neurodegenerative diseases are reviewed and questions frequently raised by patients and caregivers during the evaluation and treatment of these cognitive disorders are presented.
GeneticsHANDEDNESS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TWINS
193 Citations1940David C. Rife
The familial incidence of left-handedness rather definitely indicates a genetic basis, and there should be a definite stage in embryonic development for the establishment of each trait showing bilateral asymmetry, beyond which separation of the embryo should result in intra-pair variation, if separation should occur at some previous time.
Evolution of CommunicationThe Ontogeny of Chimpanzee Gestural Signals
191 Citations1997Michael Tomasello, Josep Call +4 more
It was concluded that youngsters were not imitatively learning their communicatory gestures from conspecifics, but rather that they were individually ritualizing them with one another in social interaction.
PubMedSitus inversus, asymmetry, and twinning.
136 Citations1950Johan Torgersen
The following data are collected in a rather extensive study of situs inversus in Norway which may be of interest in connection with the general problem of mirror-image asymmetry in twins.
Electroencephalography and Clinical NeurophysiologyHuman cerebral asymmetry
121 Citations1984John R. Hughes
BehaviourETHOLOGICAL STUDY OF MANUAL LATERALITY IN THE CHIMPANZEES OF THE MAHALE MOUNTAINS, TANZANIA
109 Citations2001McGrew, Marchant
It is hypothesised that chimpanzees in confined settings may show right side preferences due to (inadvertent) human influence; these can be tested empirically.
Behavioural Brain ResearchBaboons communicate with their right hand
94 Citations2006Adrien Meguerditchian, Jacques Vauclair
The first evidence of strong population-level right-handedness in 60 captive baboons for a species-specific communicative manual gesture is reported, supporting the view that lateralization for language may have evolved from a gestural system of communication controlled by the left hemisphere.
ScienceDifferences in Neural Organization Between Individuals with Inverted and Noninverted Handwriting Postures
78 Citations1979Morris Moscovitch, Lee Smith
Results suggest that inverted writers may be characterized by anomalous visual or visuomotor organization, and Levy's hypothesis that movements of the distal musculature are controlled by ipsilateral motor projections in subjects with inverted writing posture is challenged.
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandRight-Handedness and Left-Brainedness
60 Citations1902Dennis Cunningham
NeuropsychologiaCerebral organization and reading disabiliy
52 Citations1979Francis J. Pirozzolo, Keith Rayner
Words and faces were tachistoscopically presented to the left and right hemispheres of disabled readers who had neuropsychological deficits suggesting an auditory-linguistic form of reading disturbance and the results suggest that processing of linguistic information in the left hemisphere of these disabled readers is severely retarded.
Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychologyHow to increase your chances of obtaining a significant association between handedness and disorder
49 Citations1990Dorothy Bishop
Data from a computer simulation are used to show that if this procedure is adopted, significance levels can be seriously misleading: under certain conditions the odds of obtaining "significant" results by chance are as high as 2:3.
Annals of Human BiologyDevelopmental correlates of handedness in a national sample of 11-year-olds
44 Citations1976Michael Calnan, Ken Richardson
Non-right handedness was found to have slight, but statistically significant, associations with deficits of performance on certain standardized attainment and ability tests; with "poor speech" as assessed impressionistically by teachers in school; and with " poor control of hands" as similarly assessed by teachers.
Laterality Asymmetries of Body Brain and CognitionEffects of culture, sex, and age on the distribution of handedness: An evaluation of the sensitivity of three measures of handedness
43 Citations2004Sarah E. Medland, Ira B. Perelle +2 more
Handedness for writing was found to be more sensitive to cultural influences than the other measures, and females were less likely to be classified as left‐handed than males.
PubMedVerbal dichotic listening in developmental stuttering: subgroups with atypical auditory processing.
34 Citations2004Anne L. Foundas, David M. Corey +2 more
Left-ear bias found in left-handed men who stutter in the nondirected attention condition suggests that their right temporal lobe may be important in perceiving speech, and, therefore, they have mixed dominance.
NeuropsychologiaThe effects of handedness and writing posture on neuropsychological test results
32 Citations1980Robert J. Gregory, J. Joseph Paul
A comprehensive clinical neuropsychological test battery was administered to male right-handers, left- handers with a normal handwriting posture, and left-hander with an inverted (curled) handwriting posture to discuss the inefficiency of bilateral organization of cerebral functions.
PSYCHOLOGIAALASKAN ESKIMO HAND, EYE, AUDITORY DOMINANCE AND COGNITIVE STYLE
29 Citations1977John Dawson
NeuropsychologiaHemispheric specialization for speech in language-disordered children
29 Citations1977Sally P. Springer, Jon Eisenson
An analysis of the performance of individual children, however, showed that the size of the ear asymmetry was inversely related to severity of linguistic impairment.
Clinical Linguistics & PhoneticsSearching for the neural basis of stuttering treatment outcome: recent neuroimaging studies
28 Citations2001Luc F. De Nil, Robert M. Kroll
Quelques decouvertes recentes dans le cadre des recherches sur le begaiement obtenues grâce au developpement d'outils d'observation de l'activite neuronale tels que la neuro-imagerie are presented.
EpidemiologyHandedness and Mortality: A Follow-Up Study of Danish Twins Born between 1900 and 1910
27 Citations2000Olga Basso, Jørn Olsen +4 more
The declining prevalence of left-handed individuals with increasing age has led to two main avenues of hypotheses; the association is due either to a birth cohort effect and/or an age effect caused by a switch to right-handedness with advancing age or (2) to mortality selection that reduces survival in left- handed individuals.
Perceptual and Motor SkillsHuman Handedness: The Influence of Learning
25 Citations1981Ira B. Perelle, Lee Ehrman +1 more
Systems Research and Behavioral ScienceThe development of laterality
24 Citations1983Ira B. Perelle, Lee Ehrman
It is proposed that there for three etiologies of lefthandedness in human beings: pathological, natural, and learned.
American Journal of EpidemiologyHandedness and Mortality Risk in Older Women
21 Citations1994James R. Cerhan, Aaron R. Folsom +2 more
Findings do not support an association between left-handedness and increased mortality risk and further analysis by cause-specific mortality showed no relation to handedness.
EpidemiologyDo Left-Handers Have Increased Mortality?
19 Citations1994Per-Gunnar Persson, Peter Allebeck
The results regarding motor vehicle death indicate a slightly increased relative risk associated with left-handedness, which refute previous reports indicating an increased overall mortality.
Behavior GeneticsHandedness in Children of Schizophrenic Parents: Data from Three High-risk Studies
17 Citations2005L. Erlenmeyer‐Kimling, Sydney L. Hans +6 more
This is the first report of data analyses from a consortium of longitudinal genetic-risk studies on offspring of schizophrenic parents who were followed from birth or mid-childhood to their early 20’s or considerably older ages to address long-persisting questions in the schizophrenia literature concerning possible atypicality of hand dominance associated with the illness.
Perceptual and Motor SkillsDiffering Lateralized Perceptual-Motor Patterns in Schizophrenic and Non-Psychotic Children
17 Citations1979Victor E. Krynicki, Abbas D. Nahas
The results supported the hypothesis that there may be left-hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia; however, no single pattern of dysfunction was apparent.
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae twin researchEmbryologic Development and Monozygotic Twinning
16 Citations1996Judith G. Hall, Elena Lopez‐Rangel
Advances in molecular DNA techniques and developmental genetics have made it possible to differentiate unequivocally between MZ and DZ twins, and in this new light, this manuscript will review the recent knowledge about twins and the twinning process.