Behavioral lateralization in rats: prenatal stress effects on sex differences

Alonso, Josefina; Castellano, Miguel A.; Rodrı́guez, Manuel

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(91)90684-n

Cited by 89 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The role of practice in laterality has been shown in humans, for instance, in traditional societies with preliterate culture, thus lacking the practice of writing (Faurie, Schiefenhovel, Le Bomin, Billiard, & Raymond, 2005;Marchant, McGrew, & EiblEibesfeldt, 1995). This has also been shown in rats: after practice, rats' behavioral asymmetry presents important similarities with human laterality (Alonso, Castellano, & Rodriguez, 1991;Castellano, Diaz-Palarea, Barroso, & Rodriguez, 1989). It could also be argued that having a preferred hand is more energy-saving than having to choose between both hands every time we need to use only one (it is not rare to hear ambidexters complain that when they were in school, part of the time imparted for the timeconstrained essays were (embarrassingly) taken by this question of hand choice).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Lateral preferences in children with intellectual deficiency of idiopathic origin

Leconte

Fagard

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

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The goal of this study was to evaluate lateral preferences in a population of children with intellectual deficiency of idiopathic origin, compared with those of typically developing (TD) children. Two groups of children with mild or moderate intellectual deficiency were observed. Handedness (using a 10-item test and Bishop's card-reaching task), eyedness and footedness were studied. The younger group consisted of sixteen 10- to 11-year olds; the older group comprised fourteen 12- to 14-year olds. A control group of fifteen TD children was matched for age with the younger group of intellectually deficient (ID) children. The results show that the occurrence of left-handedness is not higher in children with ID of unknown origin than in age-matched TD children. However, we observed a marginally reduced tendency toward right-handedness in ID than in TD children: more mixed-handers among ID than TD children; test-retest consistency of hand preference significantly lower in the 10- to 11-year-old ID children than in the age-matched TD children; greater tendency of ID children to use their nonpreferred left hand when the card was presented to the left, as compared with TD children. Left-eyedness and crossed hand-eye preference were also more frequent in ID than in age-matched TD children. No age-related difference in laterality was found in ID children. These results partially support other studies indicating that less rightward asymmetry is associated with intellectual deficiency in children.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Lateral preferences in children with intellectual deficiency of idiopathic origin

Leconte

Fagard

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…In animals, maternal prenatal stress has also been linked with atypical laterality in the offspring (3)(4)(5). In humans, reduced brain asymmetry and less right-handedness have been proposed as indicators of disturbances in normal brain development and to be related to psychopathology (6).…”

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confidence: 99%

Prenatal Stress and Mixed-Handedness

2007

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Atypical lateralization, as indicated by mixedhandedness, has been related to diverse psychopathologies. Maternal prenatal stress has recently been associated with mixed-handedness in the offspring. In the present study, this relationship was investigated further in a prospective, methodologically comprehensive manner. Stress levels were determined three times during pregnancy by means of questionnaires and measurements of cortisol levels. The handedness of 110 6-y-old children (48 boys) was determined by independent observers. Mixed handedness was defined as using the opposite hand for one or more of the tested activities. Logistic regression analysis showed that more maternal daily hassles in late pregnancy and maternal mixed-handedness increased the chance of mixed-handedness in the offspring. In contrast, more pregnancyrelated fear in late pregnancy and a longer duration of gestation were associated with a smaller chance of being mixed-handed. Prenatal stress measured during the first two periods of pregnancy or determined by cortisol was not related to mixed-handedness in the offspring. In conclusion, reported and physiologic measures of prenatal stress in a moderately stressed pregnant population were only partly related to offspring mixed-handedness. A ccording to the fetal programming hypothesis, the environment in utero can alter the development of the fetus during particular sensitive periods, with a permanent effect on the set point of physiologic systems and the phenotype in later years (1).Maternal prenatal stress has been shown to affect postnatal physical, behavioral, emotional, temperamental, and physiologic outcome of the offspring (2). In animals, maternal prenatal stress has also been linked with atypical laterality in the offspring (3-5). In humans, reduced brain asymmetry and less right-handedness have been proposed as indicators of disturbances in normal brain development and to be related to psychopathology (6). Atypical lateralization, as indicated by mixed-handedness, has been associated with autism (7), dyslexia (8), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (9), and schizophrenia (10). Two recent studies investigated the possible association between maternal prenatal distress (11) and anxiety (12) and offspring mixed-handedness. Obel and colleagues (11) reported that the 3-y-old children of mothers who had experienced more distress and stressful life events during the third trimester of pregnancy had a three-to fourfold higher prevalence of mixed-handedness. Glover et al. (12) reported a significant association between prenatal anxiety measured at 18 wk of pregnancy and mixed-handedness of the 42-mo-old offspring. Furthermore, the authors found a positive relationship between maternal mixed-handedness and offspring mixed-handedness.The two studies measured handedness through parental reports, and although both found maternal prenatal stress to be associated with mixed-handedness, their results differed with respect to the period in pregnancy in which stress exerted this effec...

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“…There was a small but significant increase in the degree of paw preference between SN1 and SN2, indicating that mice become more lateralized with practise, a result that has been noted by other investigators [10,24]. This effect was too small to account for the protocol differences noted above, however.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Mouse paw preference: effects of variations in testing protocol

Bulman-Fleming

Bryden

Rogers

1997

Behavioural Brain Research

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Two experiments using two inbred strains of mice were conducted to study mouse paw preference. In the first study, 250 (50× 5) paw reaches from each of 12 male and 12 female C57BL/6J mice were observed over an 8-week period using the Collins paw preference apparatus to investigate questions relating to the independence of reaches, the size of the tube into which the animals reach for flakes of food, and practise effects. Animals appeared to be much more highly lateralized when two independent reaches per day for 25 days (I protocol) were observed than when 50 reaches were observed in a single session (S protocol). Paradoxically, however, we found no evidence for the lack of independence of reaches when we examined the sequences of reaches performed by animals under the S protocol conditions. With practise, animals became slightly more lateralized, but there were no effects of sex, and approximately equal numbers of mice were left-pawed as were right-pawed. The size of the tube had no effect. The second study used 30 BALB mice, each of which was tested with both the I and S protocols, with order of testing counterbalanced. There was a significant protocol×order interaction such that those doing S first were more highly lateralized on the I task, but those doing I first were highly lateralized on both tasks. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland B.V.

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Behavioral lateralization in rats: prenatal stress effects on sex differences

Cited by 89 publications

References 47 publications

Lateral preferences in children with intellectual deficiency of idiopathic origin

Lateral preferences in children with intellectual deficiency of idiopathic origin

Prenatal Stress and Mixed-Handedness

Mouse paw preference: effects of variations in testing protocol

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