Handedness and laterality in some measurements of the human upper limb Kunihiko KIMURA* and Masayoshi KONISHI* In the present paper, the relationship

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1 Handedness and laterality in some measurements of the human upper limb Kunihiko KIMURA* and Masayoshi KONISHI* In the present paper, the relationship between handedness and laterality in some measurements of the human upper limb was discussed. On the basis of a questionaire on the handedness in routine work and action or sports movement deviced by Kimura and Asaeda (1974), of 392 male medical students, 28 (7.4%) were identified to be left handed and 2 (0.5%) ambidextrous, and others (92.4%) were right handed. The subjects of the study consisted of 28 left handed students and 22 right handed ones sampled at random. The following items were measured; somatornetrically the grip strength, the girth of upper arm and forearm, and the length of upper limb, upper arm, forearm and hand; and on the radiographs of the hand and wrist, the length and the width at mid shaft of all the metacarpals and phalanges, in both right and left sides. Laterality was discussed based on the differences of the means in both sides, the distributions of the dominant side and the laterality coefficient for each measurement between the right and left handed groups. The laterality coefficient was calculated based on the following equation for each individual; L.C. = 100(R-L)/C.V.(R+L). In this equation, the R and L are the measured values in the right and left sides, and the C.V. is the coefficient of variance. A negative sign is conventionally added to the coefficient, when the measurement is dominant at the left side. From this study, the following results were found; (1) The grip strength and the girth of forearm, followed by the girth of upper arm and the length of forearm, are apparently dominant at the same side of the handedness. The length of hand is dominant at the left side for both right and left handed groups. The length of upper limb and upper arm do not show any laterality. A relationship of compensatory is suspected between the forearm and the hand in length. It serves probably to keep a balance between the right and left upper limbs. (2) The length of every hand bone generally shows little lateralities. The width of the second metacarpal and proximal, middle and distal phalanges, the third metacarpal and proximal and middle phalanges, the fourth metacarpal and proximal phalanx, and the fifth metacarpal are dominant at the same side of the handedness. (3) Dominance of the measurement at the side of handedness is generally more apparent in the right handed group than in the left, as well as in males than in females. * 2nd Department of Anatomy, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan.

2 Table 1 Six items of questionaire about the handedness in routine work and action (1-6) and sports movement (7-12) each. With which side of the hand do you easily do...? 1. In manipulating a can opener 9. In serving a ball at the volley 2. In hammering ball game 3. In handling a cap opener 10. bin spiking a ball at the volley all game 4. In threading a needle 11. In dribbling a ball at the 5. In getting a match lighted basket ball game 6. In handling a knife 12. In shooting a ball running at 7. In throwing a stone or a ball the basket ball game 8. In handling a tennis racket

3 Fig. 1 Nine types of the laterality classified according to laterality coefficient and laterality line. In the fugure, the larger an absolute value of the coefficient, the greater the laterality; the positive value shows a dominance of the measurement at right side and the negative at left ; and, the dotted area shows the laterality to be comparatively weak. The steeper the laterality line, the stronger a relationship of laterality to the handedness; and the upright sloping shows a dominance of the measurement at the same side of the handedness and the up left at the opposite.

4 Table 2 Means and standard deviations of the some physical measurements in the upper limb * notes significance at 5% level respectively. Table 3 Frequency of the laterality for some physical measurements in the right and left handed groups (in percentage) * notes significant difference between the right and left handed group at 5% level and ** 1% level respectively.

5 Fig. Z Laterality coefficients and laterality lines for the physical measurements.

6 Table 4 Means and standard deviations of the radiographic measurements of the I-V digits * notes significance at 5% level respectively.

7 Table 5 Frequency of the laterality in radiographic measurements in the right and left handed groups (in percentage) ** denotes significant difference between the right and the left handed group at 1% level and * at 5% level.

8 Fig. 3 Laterality coefficients and laterality lines for each length of the hand bones

9 Fig. 4 Laterality coefficients and laterality lines for each width of the hand bones

10 Hildreth G.(1949) : The development and training of hand dominance 1-3, J. Genet. Psychol. 75, Hildreth G. (1950) : The development and training of hand dominance 4-5, J. Genet. Psychol., 76, Johnson W. & Duke D.(1940) : Revised Iowa hand usage dextrality quotients of six-years olds, J. Education. Psychol. 31, Jones H.E. (1931) : Dextrality as a twenteen of age, J. Education. Paychol., 14, Bissell V.L. & Johnson W. (1940) : Iowa hand usage dextrality quotients of one hundred high-school students, J. Education. Psychol., 31, Chhibber S.R. & Singh I.(1972) : Asymmetry in muscle weight on the human upper Acta Anat., 81, limbs, Dogra S.K. & Singh I. (1970) : Asymmetry in bone weight on the human upper limbs, Anat. Anz., 127,

11 Koch H. L. (1933) : A study of the nature, measurement and determination of hand preference, Genet. Psychol. Monog., 13, Martaret C. F. (1956) : Lateral dominance in the testing of Bowling, Research Quarterly, 26 (4), Plato C. C., Wood J. L. & Norris A. H. (1980) Bilataral asymmetry in bone measurements of the hand and lateral J. Phys. Anthrop., 52, hand dominance, Am.

Studies of Foot Form for Footwear Design (Part 9) : Characteristics of the Foot Form of Young and Elder Women Based on their Sizes of Ball Joint Girth

Studies of Foot Form for Footwear Design (Part 9) : Characteristics of the Foot Form of Young and Elder Women Based on their Sizes of Ball Joint Girth and Foot Breadth Akiko Yamamoto Fukuoka Women's University,