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Is left-handedness a neurological advantage in sportive activities?

(Ist Linkshändigkeit ein neurologischer Vorteil im Sport?)

Dane and Erzurumluoglu (2003) studied sex and handedness differences in eye-hand visual reaction times in handball players. They reported that of 326 young handball players, 82.82% were right-handed and 17.18% left-handed. But, it has been reported that of normal healthy students, 90.39% were right-handed and 9.61% left-handed in the earlier study (Dane and Gumustekin, 2002). It can be stated that there is a high proportion of left-handers in handball players. Anyhow, it has been known increased prevalence of left-handedness among top sportsmen and sportswomen (Annett, 1985; Azemar, Ripoll, Simonet & Stein, 1983; McLean & Ciurczak, 1982). In the study performed by Dane and Erzurumluog(lu (2003), for the eye-dominant hand and the left eye-left hand visual reaction times, the left-handers had a superiority over the right-handers, but there was no difference between the right eye-right hand visual reaction times of the right-and left-handers. These results are consistent with the study performed by Dane and Gumustekin (2002), who reported that the shifting distance of the left-eye and the distance of focusing points of two eyes in the horizontal plane was greater in the right-handers than in the left-handers, but there is no difference between the shifting distance of the right-eye of the right- and left-handers. The results of two studies suggest a left-handed advantage over right-handed in the focusing of left eye and the left eye-left hand visual reaction times, but do not show a right-handed advantage in the focusing of right eye and the right eye-right hand visual reaction times. These results suggest a better right hemisphere performance in visuomotor activities in left-handers. In humans, the right cerebral hemisphere is dominant in visuospatial and non-verbal functions such as art, architecture, geometry and mathematics, whereas the left cerebral hemisphere is dominant in verbal functions such as rhetoric, literature and poetry (Geschwind & Behan, 1982; Springer & Deutsch, 1998; Gur, Turetsky, Matsui, Yan, Bilker, Hughett & Gur, 1999). Also, it has been reported that the better performance on a test of mental rotation of 3-D patterns by left-preferent than right-preferent individuals (Porac and Coren, 1981), that left-handers are of the more advantages over right-handers in imagining the rotations of figures (Sanders, Wilson, & Vandenburg, 1982), that left-handers might have special skills in nonverbal pursuits (Peterson and Lansky, 1974; Mebert and Michel, 1980). A dichotic listening study revealed a strong association of better right hemisphere (left ear) localization ability and creativity (Weinstein & Graves, 2002). Bryden, Jey and Sugarman (1982) reported a left-ear advantage for identifying the emotional quality of tonal sequences. McKinnon and Schellenberg (1997) reported a left-ear advantage for forced-choice judgements of melodic contour. Mathieson, Sainsbury and Fitzgerald (1990) reported that performance of the left ear was well on nonspeech sounds than that of the right ear in a dichotic listening paradigm. Emmerich, Harris, Brown and Springer (1988) reported that the left ears of left-handers showing a dichotic left-ear advantage were slightly, but not significantly, more sensitive than their right ears. Dane and Bayirli (1998) and Dane and Gumustekin (2003) reported that a left ear advantage in left-handers in hearing duration. The studies mentioned above also suggest a superiority of left-handers in auditory perceptual acuity and the left ear (right hemisphere) advantage in left-handers. As a general conclusion, it can be stated that a high proportion of left-handers among sportsmen and sportswomen may be due to the fact that left-handers have an intrinsic neurological advantage over right-handers and not to the nature of the game (Wood & Aggleton, 1989).

Bibliographische Detailangaben
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Notationen:Biowissenschaften und Sportmedizin Spielsportarten
Sprache:Englisch
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Dokumentenarten:Forschungsergebnis
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