Laterality最新文献

Spatial influences may be introduced to an experimental task by manipulations performed on the stimulus or the response or by virtue of the type of stimuli under study. Identification of spatial influences is especially pertinent in investigations of laterality, as isolation of processing to one hemisphere may inadvertently introduce spatial confounds. Because, however, space is not a relevant task feature, it may not always be obvious that it should be taken into consideration. Failure to anticipate these spatial influences can affect the conclusions drawn from results. The current work examines potential spatial influences in an experimental paradigm previously used to investigate perceptual asymmetries for duration estimation in which both stimulus presentation and response selection were lateralized. Potential spatial influences (including the spatial-temporal association of response codes - STEARC, spatial attention, and the Simon effect) are identified and systematically tested over 5 experiments. Results suggest that previously observed perceptual asymmetries in this experimental paradigm may be the result of a spatial confound, specifically, that of the Simon effect. Using vertical response options with the lateral stimulus presentation, however, mitigated the spatial influence. Altogether, the current work demonstrates the importance of carefully considering potential spatial confounds prior to commencement of laterality studies.

This paper reports a series of tests for fore- and hind-limb preferences used by cane toads, Rhinella marina, to assist returning to the righted position after being overturned. We confirm the strong and significant right-handedness reported in this species, which under certain conditions exceeded 90% right-hand preference at the group level. Toads were tested under a variety of conditions including horizontal and inclined surfaces, with and without the opportunity for the forelimbs to grasp a support, in order to assess the effects of different vestibular and proprioceptive input on the strength and direction of fore- and hind-limb preferences. A range of behavioural strategies indicated learning effects; however, the strength or direction of limb preferences did not increase significantly with experience, even in toads retested multiple times. Comparisons with the mammalian condition for limb preferences are discussed with relevance to practice effects and established limb preferences, and to effects associated with arousal or stress. In contrast to the expectation that handedness in toads represents intentional or voluntary preferences, the presence of lateralized central pattern generators in the toads is postulated to explain the different forms of lateralization revealed by our tests.

Subject handedness is an important parameter to be evaluated and accounted for in neuroscience studies dealing with laterality. The aim of this study was to survey for the details of how researchers administered the Edinburgh handedness inventory (EHI) to assess subject handedness. Web of Science and PubMed databases was searched on 3 August 2021 to identify functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) articles published since 2013 using the EHI or citing Oldfield, the original paper that introduced the EHI. Articles not actually using the EHI and/or its variants were excluded. Two reviewers performed the screening independently and disagreements were solved by mutual consensus. Most of the 406 studies using the EHI did not report details regarding the number of items (94.1%), identity of items (96.1%), response format (97.0%), and cutoff score for right-handedness (87.2%). Items were found dropped or replaced, with response format and cutoff score changed without citing references that justified the modifications. A clearer reporting of the details of the EHI as an assessment tool for determining subject handedness should be encouraged.

The behavioural outcomes associated with atypical cerebral lateralization during the early stages of cognitive development is an interesting research venture. However, there are few tasks for assessing lateralization in young children. The current study describes the Magic Hat task and the Teddy Bear Picnic task, which were designed to measure the lateralization of language and visuospatial attention, respectively, in children as young as three years old. Forty-five adults were recruited to complete the child-friendly tasks as well as the Word Generation and Landmark tasks whilst functional Transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD) measured cerebral blood flow velocity. As expected, at the group level, the Magic Hat task produced left hemisphere lateralization, and the Teddy Bear Picnic task produced right hemisphere lateralization. Both tasks demonstrated high internal reliability (α > .80). The laterality indices produced by the Magic Hat task correlated with the Word Generation task, ρ = .52, p = .001. Likewise, the laterality indices produced by the Teddy Bear Picnic task correlated with the Landmark task, ρ = .45, p = .028. Thus, the Magic Hat and Teddy Bear Picnic tasks are reliable and valid measures of language and visuospatial lateralization, suitable for toddlers and young children using fTCD.

This study examines patterns of ear advantage and attentional capacity among religious teachers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church versus adults who are not religious teachers. Religious education, rooted mainly in Christianity and Islam, has a long history in Ethiopia. Most of such education has been practised through recitations and oral presentations, which demand perceptual vigour particularly on the part of the teachers. The present study employed a dichotic listening paradigm, using monosyllabic word and CV-syllables listening tasks, administered in three attentional conditions: non-forced (NF), forced-right (FR) and forced-left (FL). 54 right-handed male adults (27 teachers and 27 non-teachers) served as participants. Percentages of correct responses per ear, as well as Laterality Index (LI) were calculated and analysed using a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical procedure. Results showed that, on both listening tasks, the religious teachers demonstrated a higher ear advantage in all conditions, indicative of stronger language asymmetry (in non-forced condition) and better ability to focus on one specific ear (in forced conditions). The findings of the present study are very much in support of the theory of neuroplasticity in human cognition (Konorski, 1948).

The onset of motor symptoms in Parkinson disease (PD) is typically unilateral. Previous work has suggested that laterality of motor symptoms may also influence non-motor symptoms including cognition and emotion perception. In line with hemispheric differences in emotion processing, we tested whether left side/right brain motor onset was associated with worse expression of facial affect when compared to right side/left brain motor onset. We evaluated movement changes associated with facial affect in 30 patients with idiopathic PD (15 left-sided motor onset, 15 right-sided motor onset) and 20 healthy controls. Participants were videotaped while posing three facial expressions: fear, anger, and happiness. Expressions were digitized and analyzed using software that extracted three variables: two measures of dynamic movement change (total entropy and entropy percent change) and a measure of time to initiate facial expression (latency). The groups did not differ in overall amount of movement change or percentchange. However, left-sided onset PD patients were significantly slower in initiating anger and happiness facial expressions than were right-sided onset PD patients and controls. Our results indicated PD patients with left-sided symptom onset had greater latency in initiating two of three facial expressions, which may reflect laterality effects in intentional behaviour.

This study investigated the validity and reliability of Turkish versions of the Waterloo Handedness and Footedness Questionnaire-Revised (WHQ-R and WFQ-R). Turkish versions of the WHQ-R and the WFQ-R, and other assessments (the Handedness Questionnaire and the Footedness Preference Test) were applied to 444 healthy participants aged between 18 and 65 years. The translation and cultural adaptation process of the WHQ-R and the WFQ-R was provided by the following proposed guideline. For test-retest reliability, translated versions were re-applied to 88 participants in a 7-day interval. Cronbach's alpha of the WHQ-R was 0.984 and that of the WFQ was 0.905. The test-retest intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) of the WHQ-R varied from 0.741 to 0.933 and those of the WFQ-R from 0.649 to 0.814. There were moderate to strong correlations between the WHQ-R and the Handedness Questionnaire (r = -853, p < 0.001) and between the WFQ-R and the Footedness Preference Test (r = -0.687, p < 0.001). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure of the WHQ-R and the WFQ-R. The results of this study demonstrated that Turkish versions of the WHQ-R and the WFQ-R are reliable and valid inventories for assessing handedness and footedness in this population.

Over the past two decades, a new way of looking at handedness has emerged (see Prichard, E., Propper, R. E., & Christman, S. D. (2013). Degree of handedness, but not direction, is a systematic predictor of cognitive performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1-6), with an emphasis on degree (strong/consistent versus mixed/inconsistent) augmenting the traditional emphasis on direction (left versus right) of handedness. Much of this work has focused on main effects: e.g., inconsistent-handers show higher (or lower) performance than consistent-handers. However, many of these "main effects" are actually nested within higher order interactions: e.g., there are no handedness differences in a baseline/control condition, with handedness differences emerging in an experimental condition. Careful examination, though, of these interactions reveals an intriguing and predictable pattern: for integrated dual processes (e.g., episodic memory encoding versus retrieval), the interactions reflect larger effects in inconsistent-, relative to consistent-, handers. For independent, mutually exclusive dual processes (e.g., approach versus withdrawal), the interactions reflect larger effects in consistent-handers. It is argued that these patterns reflect the relative inability of (i) consistent-handers to integrate dual processes, and (ii) inconsistent-handers to keep independent dual processes separate. We also use this same theory to address higher order interactions involving changes in the experimental context as well as other individual difference factors, and make suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this review is to provide an accessible exploration of key considerations of lateralization in speech and non-speech perception using clear and defined language. From these considerations, the primary arguments for each side of the linguistics versus acoustics debate are outlined and explored in context of emerging integrative theories. This theoretical approach entails a perspective that linguistic and acoustic features differentially contribute to leftward bias, depending on the given context. Such contextual factors include stimulus parameters and variables of stimulus presentation (e.g., noise/silence and monaural/binaural) and variances in individuals (sex, handedness, age, and behavioural ability). Discussion of these factors and their interaction is also aimed towards providing an outline of variables that require consideration when developing and reviewing methodology of acoustic and linguistic processing laterality studies. Thus, there are three primary aims in the present paper: (1) to provide the reader with key theoretical perspectives from the acoustics/linguistics debate and a synthesis of the two viewpoints, (2) to highlight key caveats for generalizing findings regarding predominant models of speech laterality, and (3) to provide a practical guide for methodological control using predominant behavioural measures (i.e., gap detection and dichotic listening tasks) and/or neurophysiological measures (i.e., mismatch negativity) of speech laterality.