Hand preference and hand performance: Cross-sectional developmental trends and family resemblance in degree of laterality

Abstract

The first aim of the study was to compare developmental trends in the degree of laterality (independent of direction) observed in two handedness tasks. The second aim was to assess family resemblance in the degree of laterality using the same two tasks. The sample was comprised of 186 left-handers and 302 right-handers aged from 6 to 66. Some of the sample were members of the same families. Bishop's card-reaching task was used to assess hand preference, and Annett's peg-moving task to assess manual performance. For the card-reaching task, children aged 7 to 10/11 recorded more midline crossings than the other age groups (both younger and older). No general age-related trend was observed for the Annett pegboard. For the card-reaching task, family resemblance was very low and not significant. The degree of laterality, assessed with the peg-moving task, showed a small but significant resemblance in father-offspring pairs (sons and daughters). Putative involvement of a maternally suppressed gene on chromosome 2p12 and of the androgen receptor was discussed.

Writing with non-dominant hand: left-handers perform better with the right hand than right handers with the left

“…Kalisch (2006) also found that laterality moved towards a 50:50 ratio for left and right hand preference with increasing age. This complements a study by Doyen et al (2008) as they found there was an increase in difference of the left and right hands in younger individuals.…”

Laterality Preference and Cognition: Cross-Syndrome Comparison of Patients with Trisomy 21 (Down), del7q11.23 (Williams–Beuren) and del22q11.2 (DiGeorge or Velo-Cardio-Facial) Syndromes

“…The TD group was comprised of participants from previously published studies (Carlier et al 2006a;Doyen and Carlier 2002;Doyen et al 2008) who were not biased for left-handedness; all TD group members were French. The three groups of genetic disorders were comprised of participants from previously published studies (Carlier et al 2006b;Gérard-Desplanches et al 2006) provided that they were in the age range set for the time of their assessment.…”

“…Ages ranged from 12 to 44 years at the time of their assessment. This age range was chosen primarily to avoid a strong age effect in the card-reaching task where the developmental curve of typical persons follows a linear increase from 3 to 11 years and a decrease after 12 years, with a plateau at adolescence and continuing throughout adulthood (Carlier et al 2006a;Doyen et al 2008). Second, we used this age range to obtain similar numbers of participants for the four groups (32-36 in each), with the exception of the group with the 22q11.2 deletion which had only 21 participants (see below).…”

Hand selection in a preferential reaching task: The effects of object location, orientation, and task intention in preadolescent children

“…Doyen et al. (2008) similarly demonstrated that adolescent children (ages 13–14) and adults reached across the body into contralateral space less often than preadolescent children (ages 7–12).…”