How supine postural preference of infants can contribute towards the development of handedness.
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- George F. Michel, Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: During their first three months postpartum, infants manifest an asymmetrically lateralized head position preference, typically turned to the right. This head position preference elicits an asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, which places one hand in the infant's visual field. As a result, infants have differential visual experience of their two hands. The majority of infants have more visual experience with their right hands than their left. Knowledge of which hand an infant has had more visual experience of, as a result of its postural preference, reliably predicts the hand that will be used most in a visually-elicited reaching task at ¹2 weeks postpartum. Therefore, the origin of human handedness status may reside in an asymmetrical postural preference during early infancy, which biases visual experience of the hands, giving one hand an advantage in eye-hand coordination tasks.
How supine postural preference of infants can contribute towards the development of handedness.
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Created on 1/1/1978
Views: 2513
Additional Information
- Publication
- Infant Behavior & Development. 1978; 1:245-257
- Language: English
- Date: 1978
- Keywords
- Infants, Supine postural preferences, Head position preference, Eye-hand coordination tasks