Handedness and Reach-to-Place Kinematics in Adults: Left-Handers Are Not Reversed Right-Handers

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relations between limb control and handedness in adults. Participants were categorized as left or right handed for analyses using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Three-dimensional recordings were made of each arm on two reach-to-place tasks: adults reached to a ball and placed it into the opening of a toy (fitting task), or reached to a Cheerio inside a cup, which they placed on a designated mark after each trial (cup task). We hypothesized that limb control and handedness were related, and we predicted that we would observe side differences favoring the dominant limb based on the dynamic dominance hypothesis of motor lateralization. Specifically, we predicted that the dominant limb would be straighter and smoother on both tasks compared with the nondominant limb (i.e., right arm in right-handers and left arm in left-handers). Our results only partially supported these predictions for right-handers, but not for left-handers. When differences between hands were observed, the right hand was favored regardless of handedness group. Our findings suggest that left-handers are not reversed right-handers when compared on interlimb kinematics for reach-to-place tasks, and reaffirm that task selection is critical when evaluating manual asymmetries.