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Meta-Analysis
. 2006 Jul;132(4):538-59.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.538.

Comparative and familial analysis of handedness in great apes

William D Hopkins  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Comparative and familial analysis of handedness in great apes

William D Hopkins. Psychol Bull. 2006 Jul.

Abstract

Historically, population-level handedness has been considered a hallmark of human evolution. Whether nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable debate. This paper summarizes published data on handedness in great apes. Comparative analysis indicated that chimpanzees and bonobos show population-level right handedness, whereas gorillas and orangutans do not. All ape species showed evidence of population-level handedness when considering specific tasks. Familial analyses in chimpanzees indicated that offspring and maternal (but not paternal) handedness was significantly positively correlated, but this finding was contingent upon the classification criteria used to evaluate hand preference. Overall, the proportion of right handedness is lower in great apes compared with humans, and various methodological and theoretical explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Funnel plot of SUM%R scores and N for each study in the meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean SUM%R score (+ SE) for each species of great ape. Lines indicate evolutionary divergence of different great apes species.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Percentage of right-handed offspring born to right- and left-handed females for all the combined tool use data in wild chimpanzees. (b) Percent concordance in hand use between mothers and offspring, as well as between maternal half-siblings. Asterisks indicate that the probabilities are significantly different from chance.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean HI scores on the TUBE task for focal individuals, related and unrelated chimpanzees living in the same or different social groups. RE-IG = related individuals living in same group, RE-OG = related individuals living outside the group, URE-IG = unrelated individuals living in the same group. HI scores were derived following formula [HI = (#R−#L)/#R + #L)].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean laterality scores for six measures of asymmetries in neonatal chimpanzees. HEAD = head orientation; HTM = hand-to-mouth; CRAWL = forelimb used in locomotion; COF = removal of cloth from face; HTH = hand-to-hand; STEP = foot used during stepping response. Limb asymmetries quotients were determined following the formula (#R−#L)/#R + #L). The data used to derive the LQ scores are from “Hemispheric Specialization in Infant Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Evidence for a Relation with Gender and Arousal,” by W. D. Hopkins & K. A. Bard, 1993, Developmental Psychobiology, 26, 219–235; “Evidence of Asymmetries in Spontaneous Head Turning in Infant Chimpanzees,” by W. D. Hopkins & K. A. Bard, 1995, Behavioral Neuroscience, 109, 808–812; and “Locomotor Adaptation and Leading Limb Asymmetries in Neonatal Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes),” by W. D. Hopkins, K. A. Bard, and K. M. Griner, 1997, International Journal of Primatology, 18, 104–114.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Mean handedness index for offspring born to females that cradled them on the left (L) or right side (R).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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