Manual Skills, Handedness, and Language

“

Hand preference and cerebral dominance for some aspects of language processing are hallmarks of human brain functioning. Yet, their mutual relationships, similar to interrelations between hemispheric dominance for low-level sensorimotor control of the hand and the representations of higher-order, skilled actions (praxis) still remain unclear. Whereas in some accounts (Liepmann, 1900, 1908; Geschwind and Galaburda, 1985; Heilman, 1997; see also Goldenberg, 2013b) right handedness reflects (at least in part) the functioning of the left-lateralized manual praxis system, evidence from majority of left-handers weakens such a notion because they often represent praxis skills in their motor non-dominant—left—hemispheres, too (Lausberg et al., 1999; Frey et al., 2005; Goldenberg, 2013a; see also Gonzalez and Goodale, 2009; Grabowska et al., 2012; Haberling and Corballis, 2015; Kroliczak et al., 2016; cf. Carey et al., 2015). Although the putative links between praxis and language, and their interactions with handedness, have been long considered (Dejerine and Andre-Thomas, 1912; Heilman et al., 1973, 1974; McManus, 1985; Annett and Alexander, 1996; Meador et al., 1999), more recent studies clarify their relationships (Króliczak et al., 2011; Vingerhoets et al., 2013; Biduła and Króliczak, 2015; Goldenberg and Randerath, 2015; cf. Goldenberg, 2013b), further strengthening the idea that they are contingent on each other (Vingerhoets, 2014; Króliczak et al., 2018). Moreover, evidence from individuals with rarer forms of brain dominance now supports the idea that there is a longstanding evolutionary origin to the cerebral arrangement and distribution of both related and complementary skills, e.g., praxis and language vs. attention (Grabowska et al., 1994; Corballis, 2003; Cai et al., 2013; Goldenberg, 2013b).

”