Lateral preferences and hemispheric language dominance in students in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Some humans may prefer to use their right hand in writing or drawing, while some may prefer to use their left foot to shoot football on a target. Lateral preference is known as the predilection for the use of one side of the body over the other in humans. This study was done to investigate the relationship between hand and foot preferences and language dominance, as well as their sex-related differences in both sexes among University of Port Harcourt students. One thousand 1000 apparently healthy adult subjects (500 males and 500 females), were randomly selected and recruited for the study. Foot preference was assessed using the Waterloo footedness Questionnaire-Revised (WFQ-R) and Hand preference was assessed using the Edinburgh handedness Inventory questionnaire (EHI). Language dominance was extrapolated from the established fact of left cerebral hemisphere dominance for several aspects of speech and perception in the majority of population. The sex-related differences in foot and hand preferences, and the association between foot preferences based on the hand preference were determined using the Chi- square analysis. All statistical analyses were performed with Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) version 23.0 and the significance level was set at p<0.001. No significant sex- related difference was observed in the hand and foot preferences (P>0.001). It was observed that there was a statistically significant association between hand and foot preferences in males (X²=278.506, p<0.001). There was also, a statistically significant association between hand and foot preferences in females (X²=182.387, P<0.001). Language dominance was also associated with lateral preferences. This study has shown that gender may not necessarily affect lateralization, and the extent to which culture and ethnicity affect hand preference may vary from one community to the other, and hence the different incidences of hand and foot preferences that are seen.