Ontogenetic considerations in the phylogenetic history and adaptive significance of the bias in human 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: Previous amounts of nonhuman primate handedness have failed to find any population bias in the distribution of preference. Hence, it is generally believed that a bias in the distribution of handedness is restricted to humans. MacNeilage et al. contend that a reexamination of the nonhuman primate literature, with age of the animal, task demands, practice effects, and handedness criteria carefully assessed, demonstrates a left-hand population bias for reaching and a right-hand population bias for manipulating. Each of these biases in the distribution of hand-edness mirrors the functional specialization of primate right and left cerebral hemispheres, respectively. Indeed, MacNeilage et al. suggest that the nonhuman primate handedness biases may have contributed to increasing the functional differences between the hemispheres in the evolution of human brain asymmetries.

Additional Information

Publication
Behavioral & Brain Sciences.; 10 (2):283-284.
Language: English
Date: 1987
Keywords
Handedness, Population bias, Humans, Brain structure, Development

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