Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are predominantly right-handed: replication in three populations of apes.

Bibliographic Collection: 
APE
Publication Type: Journal Article
Authors: Hopkins, William D; Wesley, Michael J; Izard, M Kay; Hook, Michelle; Schapiro, Steven J
Year of Publication: 2004
Journal: Behav Neurosci
Volume: 118
Issue: 3
Pagination: 659-63
Date Published: 2004 Jun
Publication Language: eng
ISSN: 0735-7044
Keywords: Animals, Behavior, Animal, Female, Functional Laterality, Male, Pan troglodytes, Psychological Theory, Psychomotor Performance, Social Environment, Species Specificity
Abstract:

Population-level right-handedness has historically been considered a hallmark of human evolution. Even though recent studies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have demonstrated population-level right-handedness for certain behaviors, some have questioned the validity and consistency of these findings by arguing that reported laterality effects are specific to certain colonies of apes and to those chimpanzees reared by humans. The authors report evidence of population-level right-handedness in 3 separate colonies of chimpanzees. Moreover, handedness in the 3 colonies was unrelated to the proportion of subjects that were raised by humans. This is the strongest evidence to date that population-level handedness is evident in chimpanzees and is not an artifact of human rearing.

DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.118.3.659
Alternate Journal: Behav. Neurosci.
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