Abstract
This paper is concerned with what abnormal handedness in Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) reveals about the presence, lateralization, and severity of cerebral dysfunction in this population. From previous work, it was predicted that left-handedness would be elevated in the sample and that mixed-handedness subjects should be more impaired than those with established hand dominance. A battery of cognitive and motor tests were administered to a group of PDD children with autistic symptoms, and performance was compared for the left-handed, right-handed, and mixedpreference children. It was found that left-handers tended to do better than right-handers on all cognitive measures, while the mixed-preference children tended to be the lowest on all cognitive measures. No differences were found on motor measures. An extension of the Satz (1972) model, assuming early brain damage, was developed to explain the superiority of the left-handed children; an alternative explanation assuming anomalous lateralization patterns in the natural left-handers was also suggested.
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This research was supported by a project grant from NIMH (28605) to Drs. Waterhouse and Fein, and by Research Scientist Development Awards to Drs. Fein and Pennington. We would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne and to Dr. Robin Morris for important theoretical contributions to the work. We are very grateful to the staff and students of the League School (Newton, Massachusetts), the Eden Institute (Princeton, New Jersey), the Mercer Country Community Guidance Center Day School (Trenton, New Jersey), the Midland School (Somerville, New Jersey), and Search Day Program (Ocean, New Jersey). We wish to thank Chris Brumbach, Laurie Miller, Helen Garretson, Karin Kerensky, and Joane Jenkins for their patience and skill in testing the children.
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Fein, D., Waterhouse, L., Lucci, D. et al. Handedness and cognitive functions in Pervasive Developmental disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 15, 323–333 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531502
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531502