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Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change

Manual asymmetries has been studied by many researchers, however contradictory findings still exist as to whether preferred manual asymmetries increases with age or do we become more ambidextrous. Recently it was shown that perhaps there is a third option, that there is no increase or decrease in la...

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Autores principales: Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan, Gonzalez, Dave A., Bryden, Pamela J., Young, Gordon, Forsyth, Amanda, Roy, Eric A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4293916/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25642200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01556
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author Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan
Gonzalez, Dave A.
Bryden, Pamela J.
Young, Gordon
Forsyth, Amanda
Roy, Eric A.
author_facet Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan
Gonzalez, Dave A.
Bryden, Pamela J.
Young, Gordon
Forsyth, Amanda
Roy, Eric A.
author_sort Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan
collection PubMed
description Manual asymmetries has been studied by many researchers, however contradictory findings still exist as to whether preferred manual asymmetries increases with age or do we become more ambidextrous. Recently it was shown that perhaps there is a third option, that there is no increase or decrease in laterality but rather preferred manual asymmetries remains consistent throughout adulthood. Another related finding is that females appear to have an advantage in some handedness tasks, such as the Grooved Pegboard. When a larger pegboard is used, sex differences may reverse as males may perform better when larger pegs and a larger trajectory are required. However, it is not fully understood if these sex differences arise from an early age and continue throughout life. Therefore, we sought to explore sex differences in preferred hand dominance throughout the lifespan. In order to explore preferred hand dominance during the lifespan we examined 76 children (19.4–5 year olds, 12 female, M(age) = 4.73; 34.6–8 year olds, 12 female, M(age) = 6.97; 23.9–12 year olds, 14 female, M(age) = 10.83) in Experiment 1 and 35 healthy young right-handed adults (15 female, M(age) = 20.91) and 37 healthy older right-handed adults (20 female, M(age) = 72.3) in Experiment 2. Individuals were tested using a standard size (small) and modified Grooved Pegboard (larger pegboard). Our study demonstrates that hand asymmetries are present early in life (children 4–5 years old) at that these differences attenuate as a function of age until adulthood (Experiment 1). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that as we age (Experiment 2), asymmetries may increase (small and large pegboards), decrease (Annett), or stay the same (finger tapping). As well we demonstrated that the sex differences could not be entirely accounted for by hand size. Therefore, asymmetries as regard to the aging process, seems to be task specific which may account for the conflicting findings in research.
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spelling pubmed-42939162015-01-30 Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan Gonzalez, Dave A. Bryden, Pamela J. Young, Gordon Forsyth, Amanda Roy, Eric A. Front Psychol Psychology Manual asymmetries has been studied by many researchers, however contradictory findings still exist as to whether preferred manual asymmetries increases with age or do we become more ambidextrous. Recently it was shown that perhaps there is a third option, that there is no increase or decrease in laterality but rather preferred manual asymmetries remains consistent throughout adulthood. Another related finding is that females appear to have an advantage in some handedness tasks, such as the Grooved Pegboard. When a larger pegboard is used, sex differences may reverse as males may perform better when larger pegs and a larger trajectory are required. However, it is not fully understood if these sex differences arise from an early age and continue throughout life. Therefore, we sought to explore sex differences in preferred hand dominance throughout the lifespan. In order to explore preferred hand dominance during the lifespan we examined 76 children (19.4–5 year olds, 12 female, M(age) = 4.73; 34.6–8 year olds, 12 female, M(age) = 6.97; 23.9–12 year olds, 14 female, M(age) = 10.83) in Experiment 1 and 35 healthy young right-handed adults (15 female, M(age) = 20.91) and 37 healthy older right-handed adults (20 female, M(age) = 72.3) in Experiment 2. Individuals were tested using a standard size (small) and modified Grooved Pegboard (larger pegboard). Our study demonstrates that hand asymmetries are present early in life (children 4–5 years old) at that these differences attenuate as a function of age until adulthood (Experiment 1). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that as we age (Experiment 2), asymmetries may increase (small and large pegboards), decrease (Annett), or stay the same (finger tapping). As well we demonstrated that the sex differences could not be entirely accounted for by hand size. Therefore, asymmetries as regard to the aging process, seems to be task specific which may account for the conflicting findings in research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-01-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4293916/ /pubmed/25642200 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01556 Text en Copyright © 2015 Sivagnanasunderam, Gonzalez, Bryden, Young, Forsyth and Roy. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Sivagnanasunderam, Mukundhan
Gonzalez, Dave A.
Bryden, Pamela J.
Young, Gordon
Forsyth, Amanda
Roy, Eric A.
Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title_full Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title_fullStr Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title_full_unstemmed Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title_short Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
title_sort handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4293916/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25642200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01556
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