Consistent Association Between Mixed Lateral Preference and PTSD: Confirmation Among a National Study of 2490 US Army Vietnam Veterans

Abstract

Our study confirmed findings reported among mostly smaller clinical samples and suggested that mixed lateral preference was associated with PTSD, especially among those individuals exposed to more severe psychological trauma.

The interrelationships between moral attitudes, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and mixed lateral preference in Israeli reserve combat troops

“…In accordance with previous findings (Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007;Chemtob & Taylor, 2003;Spivak et al, 1998), a negative correlation was found between PTSD symptoms severity and the degree of lateral preference in overall population of the current study. Further analyses indicated that the pattern of the relationship between PTSD symptoms and lateral preference altered between participants with low, moderate and high Moral Objection.…”

“…It has been suggested that mixed handedness might only be a limited index for mixed cerebral lateralization (Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007). However, our findings of a relationship between PTSD severity and mixed handedness are in line with previous reports among other diverse populations (Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007;Chemtob et al, 2006;Chemtob & Taylor, 2003;Saltzman et al, 2006;Spivak et al, 1998).…”

“…However, our findings of a relationship between PTSD severity and mixed handedness are in line with previous reports among other diverse populations (Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007;Chemtob et al, 2006;Chemtob & Taylor, 2003;Saltzman et al, 2006;Spivak et al, 1998). The marked differences in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and lateral preference between the groups can imply that moral attitudes might mediate combatant's psychological and organic well-being.…”

“…For example, autobiographic memory retrieval has been associated with increased bihemispheric brain activity (Cabeza & Nyberg, 2000;Propper, Christman, & Phanheuf, 2005). With regard to traumatic events, it has been suggested that the right brain hemisphere is significantly involved in threat identification and in the regulation of emotion response (Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007). In accordance with this, Lanius, Williamson, Densmoer, & Boksman (2004) found that the recalling of traumatic events among PTSD patients is characterized by a highly mixed cerebral activation pattern.…”

Dyslexia and hand preference in secondary school students.

“…Ηοwever, as indicated by Dragovic (2004), the majority of existing handedness questionnaires lack valid criteria for partitioning the continuous measure into a small number of handedness classes. That is the reason why researchers (e.g., Boscarino & Hoffman, 2007;Giotakos, 2001;Taylor, Dalton, Fleminger, & Lishman, 1982) sometimes use more than one criterion to test the stability of their findings or allow comparability with similar studies. To overcome this methodological problem, the present study evaluated the association between lateral preference for handedness and developmental dyslexia using both continuous and several dichotomous classifications of hand preference.…”