Hand preference for precision grasping predicts language lateralization

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.07.019

Neuropsychologia

Volume 47, Issue 14, December 2009, Pages 3182-3189

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.07.019 Get rights and content

Abstract

We investigated whether or not there is a relationship between hand preference for grasping and hemispheric dominance for language—and how each of these is related to other traditional measures of handedness. To do this we asked right- and left-handed participants to put together two different sets of 3D puzzles made out of big or very small LEGO^© pieces. Participants were also given two self-reported handedness questionnaires, as well as tests of grip force and finger tapping speed. A language lateralization (dichotic listening) test was also administered. We found a positive correlation between hand use for precision grasping and language lateralization (i.e. the more participants used their right hand for grasping the small LEGO^© pieces, the more language was lateralized to the left hemisphere). In addition, we identified two populations of left-handers according to their grasping performance: ‘left-right-handers’, who behaved exactly like right-handers; and ‘left-left-handers’ whose performance was the mirror image of that of right-handers. Finally, we found an increase in right-hand use when right-handers and ‘left-right-handers’ had to pick up the small LEGO^© pieces. We discuss our results in relation to recent notions of left-hemisphere specialization for visually guided actions and its relationship with the evolution of language.

Section snippets

Participants

Self-reported right- and left-handed volunteers were recruited from the University of Lethbridge. Eighteen right-handers (10 females) and eighteen left-handers (12 females), ranging in age between 19 and 35 took part in this experiment. The studies were approved by the local ethics committee and all participants gave written informed consent before participating in this study. All participants were naïve to the purpose and hypothesis of the study.

Materials and procedures

Participants were comfortably seated in front of

Results

For the two grasping tasks, the grip strength test, and finger tapping speed no significant sex differences or interactions were found in the analyses; therefore we pooled the male and female data within each handedness group.

Discussion

The results of our study show two main findings: (1) an increase in right-hand use for grasping when precision is needed, and (2) a relationship between hand preference for these precision grasps and hemispheric dominance for language.

In a previous study (Gonzalez et al., 2007) we showed that, compared to right-handers, left-handers use their non-dominant hand much more often to pick up objects. In other words, when picking up objects, right-handers showed a strong preference for their dominant

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The left hand is involved in the spatial planning of a task and in the allocation of attention in space (Carson, 1989; Hodges et al., 1997; Sainburg, 2002). In this perspective, a manual specialization can be defined independently of handedness: the preferred hand is not always the most relevant according to task specificies: right-handers perform more rapid and accurate reaches with their left hand in a pointing task whereas left-handers are more efficient with their right hand in a fine building task (Gonzalez & Goodale, 2009; Lavrysen et al., 2003). If the development of handedness is widely studied, infants’ early manual specialization is less documented and eye-hand coordination asymmetries have as far as we know never been studied.
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The main purpose of this study was to test the influence of music environment on hand-use preference in infants from 5 to 12 months, compared to speech environment. According to hemispheric specialization, our hypothesis was that infants would reach for objects more with their right hand in a speech context (left hemisphere), and more with their left hand in a music context (right hemisphere). 61 full-term infants aged from 5 to 12 months participated in this study. A prehension task was proposed successively in two sound environments (music and speech) in a counterbalanced order. Left-, right-movement and/or bimanual movements were scored. Results show that whatever the sound context, from 8 months a lateral right bias occurs and increases strongly. However, 5- to 7-months-old infants used more their left hand when they listen to a piece of classical music that an adult speech. Bimanual movements were more frequent at 6 and 7 months than unimanual movements in the speech condition. Results are discussed in terms of manual specialization.
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To understand the evolution of lateralized motor biases and cognitive functions, we rely on archeological methods to give us a window onto the past. Currently, the overwhelming majority of prehistoric data on asymmetry and laterality concern only the hominin lineage, spanning the time period from the presumed evolutionary split with the other great apes around 6–8 million years ago until the present day. We present an overview of these data from paleontology and archeology. Lateralized motor biases and anatomical asymmetries are evident throughout prehistory, showing increases in the predominance of right-handedness over time. Laterality was a key feature of the motor-cognitive development of extinct human ancestors. However, further research in living humans is needed to resolve the extent of colateralization of functions in the human brain, so we urge caution when inferring functional cognitive laterality from behavioral markers of handedness.

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Hand preference for precision grasping predicts language lateralization

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Materials and procedures

Results

Discussion

Neuropsychologia

Brain and Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Brain and Language

Brain and Cognition

Brain and Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Neuropsychologia

Using hand performance measures to predict handedness

Laterality

Quantifying hand preference using a behavioural continuum

Laterality

Right and left handedness defined: a multivariate approach using hand preference and hand performance measures

Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology

Left handedness does not extend to visually guided precision grasping

Experimental Brain Research