Hand Preferences and Whole &lt;i&gt;(Galago senegalensis)&lt;/i&gt;

Larson, Carl F.; Dodson, Deanna L.; Ward, Jeannette P.

doi:10.1159/000115934

Cited by 50 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Our study supports the idea that hand preference may increase with arousal in the central nervous system (Larson et al, 1989; Westergaard et al, 1998), and for Fagot and Vauclair's (1991) theory that high-level or difficult tasks reflect specializations in the brain better than simple low-level tasks. The bipedal tool use task, especially without any support, was an uncomfortable and somewhat taxing task for the chimpanzee subjects in this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Some species differences may result from environmental or ecological factors (e.g., arboreality) that indirectly influence hand preference through posture. Primates such as bushbabies (Larson et al, 1989), ruffed lemurs (Forsythe et al, 1988), and gibbons (Olson et al, 1990) have exhibited non-population level left-hand preferences for bipedal food reaching (cf. MacNeilage et al, 1987).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bipedal tool use strengthens chimpanzee hand preferences

Braccini

Lambeth

Schapiro

et al. 2010

Journal of Human Evolution

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The degree to which non-human primate behavior is lateralized, at either individual or population levels, remains controversial. We investigated the relationship between hand preference and posture during tool use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) during bipedal tool use. We experimentally induced tool use in a supported bipedal posture, an unsupported bipedal posture, and a seated posture. Neither bipedal tool use nor these supported conditions have been previously evaluated in apes. The hypotheses tested were 1) bipedal posture will increase the strength of hand preference, and 2) a bipedal stance, without the use of one hand for support, will elicit a right hand preference. Results supported the first, but not the second hypothesis: bipedalism induced the subjects to become more lateralized, but not in any particular direction. Instead, it appears that subtle pre-existing lateral biases, to either the right or left, were emphasized with increasing postural demands. This result has interesting implications for theories of the evolution of tool use and bipedalism, as the combination of bipedalism and tool use may have helped drive extreme lateralization in modern humans, but cannot alone account for the preponderance of right-handedness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bipedal tool use strengthens chimpanzee hand preferences

Braccini

Lambeth

Schapiro

et al. 2010

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…Collins (3, 4) reported similar findings for mice of other strains. Also, the tendency for left-handed reaching that we observed in the NOR strain had been reported in other mouse strains (4,13), as well as in other nonhuman mammalian species (14,15) It has been reported that the strength of handedness is influenced by hereditary factors (4,13,16) and that the direction of handedness is influenced by environmental factors (17), even by teaching (18). The present study associates the direction of handedness with a genetically determined asymmetry of a neuronal system.…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

Direction of handedness linked to hereditary asymmetry of a sensory system.

Barnéoud

Loos

1993

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Studies on the role of heredity in the transmission of handedness in nonhuman mammals have, so far, led to the isolation of mouse strains that differed in the lateralized versus ambidextrous use of the forepaw in a food-retrieval task (strength of paw preference). Here we report that left versus right use of the forepaw (direction of paw preference) is associated with a genetically expressed structural asymmetry of a sensory system, the whisker-to-barrel pathway. Mice that express whisker pad asymmetry of a direction that corresponds with the asymmetry for which they were bred demonstrate an opposite shift in the distribution of handedness: a right or left dominance of the whisker pad predicts a high proportion of left-handers or right-handers, respectively. Is an altered brain circuit-that is, a consequence of the asymmetry ofthe whisker pad-associated with a change in the circuitry that governs handedness? Or, alternatively, are there two gene sets responsible for the phenomena that we report-one that causes "whiskeredness" and another that causes handedness?Many explanations have been proposed to account for human handedness-an expression of brain asymmetry-ranging from purely cultural to purely genetic factors (1). Because human family studies do not readily lead to a better understanding of hereditary mechanisms and the brain substrate of handedness is not known, it is difficult to arrive at a unique explanation. Such difficulties can be circumvented by using animals because handedness is not confined to our species (2). Mice exhibit a durable paw preference (3). Coflins (4) reported that preference for the right or the left paw is not subject to genetic selection: he was unable to breed right-or left-pawed mice over several generations by mating animals showing a right or a left paw preference. However, this author succeeded in breeding ambidextrous as opposed to lateralized (left-or right-handed) mice by mating animals that show ambidextrousness or show strong lateralization, resulting in lines that he named "LO" and "HI." Collins concluded that strength, but not direction, of lateralization may be genetically defined. We here propose a genetically determined asymmetry of a sensory system that may indeed be associated with the direction of paw preference ("handedness") in mice.A contribution of potential interest for animal studies on left-right asymmetry has been the breeding of mice for a morphologic trait that in certain lines of animals may occur dominantly on one side of the body or on the other. Starting with an outbred population of ICR mice that showed mild variations of the nearly stereotyped pattern of whiskers on their muzzles (5), Van der Loos et al. (6) selectively bred mice for distinct whisker patterns. Such patterns of whiskers on the whisker pad are homeomorphic with those of the barrels (multineuronal units) in the barrel field of the primary somatosensory cortex (7,8). Moreover, we have adduced arguments for the notion that it is the pattern of vibrissae that is responsible for...

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“…For prosimians, a shift to left-hand preference and an increase in the strength of hand preference for bimanual versus quadrupedal tasks has been observed in Senegal bushbabies [8,27]. Additionally, ruffed lemurs show a shift to left hand preference for tasks of extreme postural adjustment versus free foraging tasks [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does body posture influence hand preference in an ancestral primate model?

et al. 2011

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BackgroundThe origin of human handedness and its evolution in primates is presently under debate. Current hypotheses suggest that body posture (postural origin hypothesis and bipedalism hypothesis) have an important impact on the evolution of handedness in primates. To gain insight into the origin of manual lateralization in primates, we studied gray mouse lemurs, suggested to represent the most ancestral primate condition. First, we investigated hand preference in a simple food grasping task to explore the importance of hand usage in a natural foraging situation. Second, we explored the influence of body posture by applying a forced food grasping task with varying postural demands (sit, biped, cling, triped).ResultsThe tested mouse lemur population did not prefer to use their hands alone to grasp for food items. Instead, they preferred to pick them up using a mouth-hand combination or the mouth alone. If mouth usage was inhibited, they showed an individual but no population level handedness for all four postural forced food grasping tasks. Additionally, we found no influence of body posture on hand preference in gray mouse lemurs.ConclusionOur results do not support the current theories of primate handedness. Rather, they propose that ecological adaptation indicated by postural habit and body size of a given species has an important impact on hand preference in primates. Our findings suggest that small-bodied, quadrupedal primates, adapted to the fine branch niche of dense forests, prefer mouth retrieval of food and are less manually lateralized than large-bodied species which consume food in a more upright, and less stable body posture.

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Hand Preferences and Whole <i>(Galago senegalensis)</i>

Cited by 50 publications

References 21 publications

Bipedal tool use strengthens chimpanzee hand preferences

Bipedal tool use strengthens chimpanzee hand preferences

Direction of handedness linked to hereditary asymmetry of a sensory system.

Does body posture influence hand preference in an ancestral primate model?

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