The advantage of a decreasing right-hand superiority: The influence of laterality on a selected musical skill (sight reading achievement)

Abstract

In this study, the unrehearsed performance of music, known as ‘sight reading’, is used as a model to examine the influence of motoric laterality on highly challenging musical performance skills. As expertise research has shown, differences in this skill can be partially explained by factors such as accumulated practise and an early start to training. However, up until now, neurobiological factors that may influence highly demanding instrumental performance have been widely neglected. In an experiment with 52 piano students at a German university music department, we could show that the most challenging musical skill, sight reading (which is characterized by extreme demands on the performer's real time information processing), is positively correlated with decreasing right-hand superiority of performers. Laterality was measured by the differences between left and right-hand performance in a speed tapping task. SR achievement was measured using an accompanying task paradigm. An overall superiority of 22% for non-right-handed pianists was found. This effect is gender-related and stronger in non-right-handed males ( r(24) = −0.49, p < 0.05) than in non-right-handed females ( r(28) = −0.16, p > 0.05). We conclude that non-right-handed motoric laterality is associated with neurobiological advantages required for sight reading, an extremely demanding musical subskill.