Evaluation of Some Tasks Used for Specifying Handedness and Footedness

Abstract

Healthy men (n = 42) and women (n = 45) who were right-handed and men (n = 21) and women (n = 20) who were left-handed were studied. Men's mean age was 21.1 +/- 3.5 yr. and women's 20.7 +/- 3.1 yr. These students in various faculties reported they were right- or left-handed. Then their hand and foot preferences (handedness and footedness) were ascertained by asking each of the subjects to perform 11 tasks for handedness and 9 tasks for footedness. A discriminate function analysis test showed that each of the 11 tasks used for assessing their self-reported handedness was significant, but, of the 9 tasks used for assessing self-reported footedness, only 7 were significant. Strength of the hand or foot played no role in reports of handedness or footedness. A combination of four tasks, such as pulling a door, pushing a door, holding an object, and hammering a nail, on which the maximum number of subjects performed with the right or left hand, depending upon their self-reported handedness, would be ideal for ascertaining handedness. A combination of three tasks, namely, kicking a football, pushing an object with the foot, and stamping on the ground, would be ideal for ascertaining footedness.

Reliability of TMS-related measures of tibialis anterior muscle in patients with chronic stroke and healthy subjects

“…The right side was the dominant side in 10 stroke patients and in 11 healthy subjects, and the left side in 6 stroke patients and 5 healthy subjects (Table 1). Handedness was determined by means of a revised Edinburgh Handedness Inventory [24], whereas footedness was determined using a combination of three tasks (kicking a football, pushing an object with the foot and stamping on the ground), as suggested by Hebbal and Mysorekar [25].…”

The effect of limb dominance on lower limb functional performance – a systematic review

“…Lateral preference is observed with the preferential use of a hand or foot associated with a motor skill (Serrien, Ivry, & Swinnen, 2006). In contrast, lateral dominance suggests the functional specialisation of either the left or right brain hemispheres (Hebbal & Mysorekar, 2006;Steenhuis & Bryden, 1989).…”

Lower limb laterality versus foot structure in men and women

“…; and Which leg do you use to smooth sand on the beach? Hebbal et al [9] assessed footedness on answers to questions on nine activities, from which three activities they eventually considered "ideal" to assess footedness, i.e., kicking a ball, moving an object with foot, and stamping feet. We decided to choose two tasks form the Waterloo Questionnaire to assess footedness: kicking a ball at a target (the dominant limb being the limb kicking a ball) and vertical jump (the dominant limb being the leading limb, countermovement limb), in which we applied the interpretation of limb dominance by Chapman et al [3], Gabbard et al [8], and Peters [18].…”

“…The questionnaires that examine footedness contain diverse sets of activities, which test diverse elements of lower limb activity, diverse forms of its manifestation, and diverse functional character. Some tests have only covered manipulating or leading functions [9,18,25]; others have additionally considered supporting or propulsive functions, which has led to constructing mixed sets of tasks, combining both task types mentioned above [4,6,7]. However, the results of both task types have been analysed together (e.g., points for different tasks were summed, with no differentiation shown for task type) [6], which might have led to eliminating or masking the real differences related to limb laterality.…”