Right-handedness: a Consequence of Infant Supine Head-orientation Preference?

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 1981 May 8

PMID 7221558

Citations 31

Authors

G F Michel

Affiliations

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Abstract

Most newborn infants (65 percent) preferred to lie with their heads turned to the right, whereas 15 percent showed a distinct preference for the left. Orientation preference is maintained for at least 2 months and predicts preferential hand use in reaching tasks at both 16 and 22 weeks. Right head-orientation preference in early infancy may contribute to the early development of right-handedness.

Citing Articles

Hand preference trajectories as predictors of language outcomes above and beyond SES: Infant patterns explain more variance than toddler patterns at 5 years of age.

Contino K, Campbell J, Marcinowski E, Michel G, Ramos M, Coxe S Infant Child Dev. 2024; 33(3).

PMID: 39170910 PMC: 11335320. DOI: 10.1002/ICD.2468.

Early, concurrent, and consistent hand preferences predict stacking in toddlerhood.

Marcinowski E, Nelson E, Campbell J, Michel G Dev Psychobiol. 2023; 65(5):e22397.

PMID: 37338251 PMC: 11182046. DOI: 10.1002/dev.22397.

Developmental cascades as a framework for primate handedness.

Nelson E Front Behav Neurosci. 2022; 16:1063348.

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Morphologic Variants of the Hand Motor Cortex in Developing Brains from Neonates through Childhood Assessed by MR Imaging.

Wu F, Zhao H, Zhang Y, Wang M, Liu C, Wang X AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2022; 43(2):292-298.

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Measuring infant handedness reliably from reaching: A systematic review.

Nelson E, Gonzalez S Laterality. 2020; 25(4):430-454.

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