Abstract
It has been known for many years that hand preference is associated with cerebral lateralisation for language, but the relationship is weak and indirect. It has been suggested that quantitative measures of differential hand skill or reaching preference may provide more valid measures than traditional inventories, but to date these have not been validated against direct measures of cerebral lateralisation. We investigated the associations of three different handedness assessments; 1) a hand preference inventory, 2) a measure of relative hand skill, and 3) performance on a reaching task; with cerebral lateralisation for language function as derived from functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound during a language production task, in a group of 57 typically developing children aged from 6 to 16 years. Significant correlations between cerebral lateralisation for language production and handedness were found for a short version of the inventory and for performance on the reaching task. However, confidence intervals for the correlations overlapped and no one measure emerged as clearly superior to the others. The best handedness measures accounted for only 8–16% of the variance in cerebral lateralisation. These findings indicate that researchers should not rely on handedness as an indicator of cerebral lateralisation for language. They also imply that lateralisation of language and motor functions in the human brain show considerable independence from one another.
Highlights
Neuropsychologists have long been interested in handedness as a possible indirect measure of cerebral lateralisation for language function
We investigated the associations of three different handedness assessments with an independent measure of cerebral lateralisation for language function in a group of 57 typically developing children
It has long been known that a relationship between handedness and cerebral lateralisation for language exists, albeit a weak and indirect one
Summary
Neuropsychologists have long been interested in handedness as a possible indirect measure of cerebral lateralisation for language function. A quick search using the Web of Knowledge [7] shows that 469 original articles on cerebral lateralisation, published between 2000 and 2012, cite one immensely popular handedness inventory, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI) [8] Of these papers, only 217 included a neuroimaging technique (i.e., magnetic resonance imaging, computer tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, functional transcranial Doppler ulstrasound or functional near-infrared spectrography; n = 178) or another behavioural measure of cerebral lateralisation (i.e., dichotic listening or visual half-field technique; n = 39). Only 217 included a neuroimaging technique (i.e., magnetic resonance imaging, computer tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, functional transcranial Doppler ulstrasound or functional near-infrared spectrography; n = 178) or another behavioural measure of cerebral lateralisation (i.e., dichotic listening or visual half-field technique; n = 39) This suggests that 252 original articles on cerebral lateralisation (54%), published at a time when neuroimaging techniques were widely available, used hand preference as the main measure
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
