Manual Skills, Handedness, and the Organization of Language in the Brain
Manual Skills, Handedness, and the Organization of Language in the Brain

Author: Gregory Króliczak

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2019-08-15

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 2889459683

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Whereas the cerebral specialization for skilled manual actions (praxis) seems closely linked to dominance for language, with both functions left lateralized in the vast majority of humans, the neural correlates of hand preference are still less well understood. Indeed, as a combination of inherited and non-inherited genomic factors (i.e., direct parental and concealed environmental contributions), handedness – in contrast to language – is less likely to have strong genetic indices and clearly lateralized functional organization. What about eye dominance, unimanual and bimanual object manipulation, and gestures, or attentional systems and the related egocentric or allocentric coding of space? Are these different categories functionally and structurally interconnected? Is their development and contribution to task performance linked, even if they are differently lateralized? How are they connected to language learning or its development? In trying to understand these relationships and their neural underpinnings we obtain a new insight into fundamental human behaviors, which depend either on shared or distinct cerebral resources that must, nevertheless, be harmonized by higher-order cerebral processing. In this Research Topic we assembled a dozen of original research contributions, as well as articles with more theoretically-driven perspectives, that directly speak to these issues. Hopefully this work will serve as a foundation for further discussions and will stimulate new research in this fascinating domain.

Manual Specialization and the Developing Brain
Manual Specialization and the Developing Brain

Author: Gerald Young

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2012-12-02

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0323150608

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Manual Specialization and the Developing Brain deals with how the hands acquire different skills and what this may tell about the child's developing brain. This book is organized into three parts. Part I provides a general overview of lateralization development, while Part II compiles contributions that are more theoretical in nature. The last part summarizes the empirical research with neonates. This text specifically discusses the studies of early lateralized manual behaviors, character of human handedness, and factors that contribute toward variability in lateralization. The hemisphere differences in response to specific stimulus cues, phylogenetic perspective, and infant motor skills project are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the developmental view of hemispheric specialization and changes and constancies in development. This publication is useful to pediatricians, medical practitioners, and researchers concerned with early lateralized behavior.

Handedness & Speech: Brain Plasticity & Evolution
Handedness & Speech: Brain Plasticity & Evolution

Author: Kenneth Provins

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0980815932

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Reviews research on the origins of handedness in the context of Darwin's theory of evolution and considers the development of functional asymmetry of the brain for hand usage and speech as a result of plasticity of the nervous system.

The Hand, an Organ of the Mind
The Hand, an Organ of the Mind

Author: Zdravko Radman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-05-10

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 0262313545

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Theoretical and empirical accounts of the interconnectedness between the manual and the mental suggest that the hand can be understood as a cognitive instrument. Cartesian-inspired dualism enforces a theoretical distinction between the motor and the cognitive and locates the mental exclusively in the head. This collection, focusing on the hand, challenges this dichotomy, offering theoretical and empirical perspectives on the interconnectedness and interdependence of the manual and mental. The contributors explore the possibility that the hand, far from being the merely mechanical executor of preconceived mental plans, possesses its own know-how, enabling "enhanded" beings to navigate the natural, social, and cultural world without engaging propositional thought, consciousness, and deliberation. The contributors consider not only broad philosophical questions—ranging from the nature of embodiment, enaction, and the extended mind to the phenomenology of agency—but also such specific issues as touching, grasping, gesturing, sociality, and simulation. They show that the capacities of the hand include perception (on its own and in association with other modalities), action, (extended) cognition, social interaction, and communication. Taken together, their accounts offer a handbook of cutting-edge research exploring the ways that the manual shapes and reshapes the mental and creates conditions for embodied agents to act in the world. Contributors Matteo Baccarini, Andrew J. Bremner, Massimiliano L. Cappuccio, Andy Clark, Jonathan Cole, Dorothy Cowie, Natalie Depraz, Rosalyn Driscoll, Harry Farmer, Shaun Gallagher, Nicholas P. Holmes, Daniel D. Hutto, Angelo Maravita, Filip Mattens, Richard Menary, Jesse J. Prinz, Zdravko Radman, Matthew Ratcliffe, Etiennne B. Roesch, Stephen V. Shepherd, Susan A.J. Stuart, Manos Tsakiris, Michael Wheeler

Handedness and Brain Asymmetry
Handedness and Brain Asymmetry

Author: Marian Annett

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1134950810

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Brain asymmetry for speech is moderately related to handedness but what are the rules? Are symmetries for hand and brain associated with characteristics such as intelligence, motor skill, spatial reasoning or skill at sports? In this follow up to the influential Left, Right Hand and Brain (1985) Marian Annett draws on a working lifetime of research to help provide answers to crucial questions. Central to her argument is the Right Shift Theory - her original and innovative contribution to the field that seeks to explain the relationships between left-and right-handedness and left-and right-brain specialisation. The theory proposes that handedness in humans and our non-human primate relations depends on chance but that chance is weighted towards right-handedness in most people by an agent of right-hemisphere disadvantage. It argues for the existence of a single gene for right shift (RS+) that evolved in humans to aid the growth of speech in the left hemisphere of the brain. The Right Shift Theory has possible implications for a wide range of questions about human abilities and disabilities, including verbal and non verbal intelligence, educational progress and dyslexia, spatial reasoning, sporting skills and mental illness. It continues to be at the cutting edge of research, solving problems and generating new avenues of investigation - most recently the surprising idea that a mutant RS+ gene might be involved in the causes of schizophrenia and autism. Handedness and Brain Asymmetry will make fascinating reading for students and researchers in psychology and neurology, educationalists, and anyone with a keen interest in why people have different talents and weaknesses.

The Hand
The Hand

Author: Frank R. Wilson

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 1999-09-14

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0679740473

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"A startling argument . . . provocative . . . absorbing." --The Boston Globe "Ambitious . . . arresting . . . celebrates the importance of hands to our lives today as well as to the history of our species." --The New York Times Book Review The human hand is a miracle of biomechanics, one of the most remarkable adaptations in the history of evolution. The hands of a concert pianist can elicit glorious sound and stir emotion; those of a surgeon can perform the most delicate operations; those of a rock climber allow him to scale a vertical mountain wall. Neurologist Frank R. Wilson makes the striking claim that it is because of the unique structure of the hand and its evolution in cooperation with the brain that Homo sapiens became the most intelligent, preeminent animal on the earth. In this fascinating book, Wilson moves from a discussion of the hand's evolution--and how its intimate communication with the brain affects such areas as neurology, psychology, and linguistics--to provocative new ideas about human creativity and how best to nurture it. Like Oliver Sacks and Stephen Jay Gould, Wilson handles a daunting range of scientific knowledge with a surprising deftness and a profound curiosity about human possibility. Provocative, illuminating, and delightful to read, The Hand encourages us to think in new ways about one of our most taken-for-granted assets. "A mark of the book's excellence [is that] it makes the reader aware of the wonder in trivial, everyday acts, and reveals the complexity behind the simplest manipulation." --The Washington Post

Knowing Hands
Knowing Hands

Author: David A. Rosenbaum

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-02-27

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1316943046

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Whenever you get dressed, carry objects, write, draw, or gesture, you express knowledge about how to get things done with your hands. Ironically, that knowledge is often difficult to express. Typically you can't say what you know. Still, it would be enormously useful to identify the knowledge underlying manual control. The design of equipment and transportation systems might better anticipate the abilities and limitations of users, and methods of teaching and rehabilitating skills might improve. This book, the first on the cognitive psychology of manual control, uncovers the hidden knowledge that hands express. Organized around key topics in this emerging area, including the role of the will in manual control, illusions concerning hand position sense, and the coordination of manual actions with others, Knowing Hands explains the planning and control of manual actions in everyday life.

Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness
Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness

Author: Jeannine Herron

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2012-12-02

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 0323153666

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Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness focuses on the neurological imperative and unique brain organization of left-handers. This book is organized into two parts. Part I analyzes ideas about the origins of left-handedness, such as possible genetic mechanisms, manner in which asymmetries may occur during the first cell cleavages following fertilization, handedness of twins, and possibility that some left-handedness may be due to environmental or even pathological influences. The second part is devoted to a variety of investigations of asymmetric hemisphere specialization in right- and left-handers. The different groups of left-handers, which includes male and female, strong left-preferrers and ambidexters, familial and non-familial lefthanders, and those who prefer an “inverted position for writing as opposed to a “non-inverted position, are also identified. This publication is a good reference for medical practitioners and specialists interested in the neuropsychology of left-handedness.

The Puzzle of Left-handedness
The Puzzle of Left-handedness

Author: Rik Smits

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2011-10-15

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1861899742

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Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have both signed bills into law with their left hands. And being left-handed certainly did not hold back the artistic achievements of Michelangelo or Raphael. And the dexterous guitar playing of Jimmi Hendrix may only have been aided by his southpaw tendencies. Left-handedness, in fact, would appear to be no big deal. Yet throughout history, it has been associated with clumsiness and generally dubious personality traits like untrustworthiness and insincerity. Even the Latin word for left, sinister, has ominous connotations. In The Puzzle of Left-handedness, Rik Smits uncovers why history has been so unkind to our lefthanded forebears. He carefully puts together the pieces of the puzzle, presenting an array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions, and weird wives’ tales. Smits explains how left-handedness continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds, including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay fever, cancer, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and criminality. Even in the enlightened twenty-first century, left-handedness still meets with opposition—including from one prominent psychologist who equates it with infantile negativism, similar to a toddler’s refusal to eat what’s on his plate, and another who claims that left-handed people have average lifespans that are nine years shorter than those who favor the right hand. As Smits reminds us, such speculation is backed by little factual evidence, and the arguments presented by proponents of right-handedness tend to be humorously absurd. The Puzzle of Left-handedness is an enlightening, engaging, and entertaining odyssey through the puzzles and paradoxes, theories and myths, of left-handed lore. Chock full of facts and fiction, it’s a book to be read with both hands.