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Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata

A practical approach to understanding lateral asymmetries in body, brain, and cognition would be to examine the performance advantages/disadvantages associated with the corresponding functions and behavior. In the present study, we examined whether the division of labor in hand usage, marked by the...

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Autores principales: Mangalam, Madhur, Desai, Nisarg, Singh, Mewa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373831/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25806511
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119337
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author Mangalam, Madhur
Desai, Nisarg
Singh, Mewa
author_facet Mangalam, Madhur
Desai, Nisarg
Singh, Mewa
author_sort Mangalam, Madhur
collection PubMed
description A practical approach to understanding lateral asymmetries in body, brain, and cognition would be to examine the performance advantages/disadvantages associated with the corresponding functions and behavior. In the present study, we examined whether the division of labor in hand usage, marked by the preferential usage of the two hands across manual operations requiring maneuvering in three-dimensional space (e.g., reaching for food, grooming, and hitting an opponent) and those requiring physical strength (e.g., climbing), is associated with higher hand performance in free-ranging bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata. We determined the extent to which the macaques exhibit laterality in hand usage in an experimental unimanual and a bimanual food-reaching task, and the extent to which manual laterality is associated with hand performance in an experimental hand-performance-differentiation task. We observed negative relationships between (a) the latency in food extraction by the preferred hand in the hand-performance-differentiation task (wherein, lower latency implies higher performance), the preferred hand determined using the bimanual food-reaching task, and the normalized difference between the performance of the two hands, and (b) the normalized difference between the performance of the two hands and the absolute difference between the laterality in hand usage in the unimanual and the bimanual food-reaching tasks (wherein, lesser difference implies higher manual specialization). Collectively, these observations demonstrate that the division of labor between the two hands is associated with higher hand performance.
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spelling pubmed-43738312015-03-27 Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata Mangalam, Madhur Desai, Nisarg Singh, Mewa PLoS One Research Article A practical approach to understanding lateral asymmetries in body, brain, and cognition would be to examine the performance advantages/disadvantages associated with the corresponding functions and behavior. In the present study, we examined whether the division of labor in hand usage, marked by the preferential usage of the two hands across manual operations requiring maneuvering in three-dimensional space (e.g., reaching for food, grooming, and hitting an opponent) and those requiring physical strength (e.g., climbing), is associated with higher hand performance in free-ranging bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata. We determined the extent to which the macaques exhibit laterality in hand usage in an experimental unimanual and a bimanual food-reaching task, and the extent to which manual laterality is associated with hand performance in an experimental hand-performance-differentiation task. We observed negative relationships between (a) the latency in food extraction by the preferred hand in the hand-performance-differentiation task (wherein, lower latency implies higher performance), the preferred hand determined using the bimanual food-reaching task, and the normalized difference between the performance of the two hands, and (b) the normalized difference between the performance of the two hands and the absolute difference between the laterality in hand usage in the unimanual and the bimanual food-reaching tasks (wherein, lesser difference implies higher manual specialization). Collectively, these observations demonstrate that the division of labor between the two hands is associated with higher hand performance. Public Library of Science 2015-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4373831/ /pubmed/25806511 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119337 Text en © 2015 Mangalam et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mangalam, Madhur
Desai, Nisarg
Singh, Mewa
Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title_full Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title_fullStr Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title_full_unstemmed Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title_short Division of Labor in Hand Usage Is Associated with Higher Hand Performance in Free-Ranging Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata
title_sort division of labor in hand usage is associated with higher hand performance in free-ranging bonnet macaques, macaca radiata
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373831/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25806511
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119337
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