William D. Hopkins | Department of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, United States
Simone Pika | Humboldt Research Group “Comparative Gestural Signalling”, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse, Seewiesen, Germany
Katja Liebal | Department of Psychology, Freie Universitat Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee Berlin, Germany
Amanda Bania | The National Zoo, Washington, D.C. Department of Veterinary Sciences, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, Texas
Adrien Meguerditchian | Division of Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Left hemisphere dominance for language and speech is a prominent feature of the human brain. Some have suggested that left hemisphere lateralization for language in modern humans evolved from an existing lateralized system for gestural communication in the common ancestor of humans and apes. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of the data on handedness for manual gestures in great apes to test whether species-level asymmetries in hand use were evident and if these asymmetries were consistent across species. Hand preference data for manual gestures were summarized for published and unpublished data in the literature. For observational data, we found that bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans all showed group-level right handedness for manual gestures. For experimental data, group-level right handedness was only found for chimpanzees, though sample sizes were relatively small in the remaining ape species. When hand preference data were combined across ape species, we found that right handedness was much more prevalent for auditory gestures, such as clapping, compared to visual and tactile gestures. The results support the view that asymmetries in hand use for gestural communication was prevalent in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans and was possibly evident even earlier in primate evolution. Additional data are needed, particularly from wild apes to test for the presence of these asymmetries in subjects raised in their natural environment.
2022. Limb Preference in Animals: New Insights into the Evolution of Manual Laterality in Hominids. Symmetry 14:1 ► pp. 96 ff.
Cochet, Hélène & Richard W. Byrne
2013. Evolutionary origins of human handedness: evaluating contrasting hypotheses. Animal Cognition 16:4 ► pp. 531 ff.
Leavens, David A & William D Hopkins
2021. Primate Gesture. In Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, ► pp. 6217 ff.
Meguerditchian, Adrien, Jacques Vauclair & William D. Hopkins
2013. On the origins of human handedness and language: A comparative review of hand preferences for bimanual coordinated actions and gestural communication in nonhuman primates. Developmental Psychobiology 55:6 ► pp. 637 ff.
Meunier, Hélène, Jacqueline Fagard, Anaïs Maugard, Margarita Briseño, Jonas Fizet, Charlotte Canteloup, Charlotte Defolie & Jacques Vauclair
2013. Patterns of hemispheric specialization for a communicative gesture in different primate species. Developmental Psychobiology 55:6 ► pp. 662 ff.
Molesti, Sandra, Adrien Meguerditchian & Marie Bourjade
2020. Gestural communication in olive baboons (Papio anubis): repertoire and intentionality. Animal Cognition 23:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Morino, Luca, Makiko Uchikoshi, Fred Bercovitch, William D. Hopkins & Tetsuro Matsuzawa
2017. Tube task hand preference in captive hylobatids. Primates 58:3 ► pp. 403 ff.
Prieur, Jacques, Stéphanie Barbu, Catherine Blois-Heulin & Simone Pika
2017. Captive gorillas’ manual laterality: The impact of gestures, manipulators and interaction specificity. Brain and Language 175 ► pp. 130 ff.
Prieur, Jacques, Gwendoline Le Du, Mathilde Stomp, Stéphanie Barbu & Catherine Blois-Heulin
2020. Human laterality for manipulation and gestural communication: A study of beach-volleyball players during the Olympic Games. Laterality 25:2 ► pp. 229 ff.
Prieur, Jacques, Alban Lemasson, Stéphanie Barbu, Catherine Blois‐Heulin & R. Bshary
2019. History, development and current advances concerning the evolutionary roots of human right‐handedness and language: Brain lateralisation and manual laterality in non‐human primates. Ethology 125:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
2018. A multifactorial investigation of captive gorillas’ intraspecific gestural laterality. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition 23:5 ► pp. 538 ff.
2018. Do Mechanical Effectiveness and Recipient Species Influence Intentional Signal Laterality in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)?. International Journal of Primatology 39:4 ► pp. 602 ff.
Roberts, Anna Ilona, Samuel George Bradley Roberts & Sarah-Jane Vick
2014. The repertoire and intentionality of gestural communication in wild chimpanzees. Animal Cognition 17:2 ► pp. 317 ff.
Smith, Lindsey W. & Roberto A. Delgado
2013. Considering the role of social dynamics and positional behavior in gestural communication research. American Journal of Primatology 75:9 ► pp. 891 ff.
Young, Gerald
2019. Animal Laterality Research. In Causality and Development, ► pp. 109 ff.
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