When Left-Handed Mice Live in Right-Handed Worlds

Collins, Robert L.

doi:10.1126/science.1111097

Cited by 253 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Only about 10% of the mice in this experiment showed a paw preference inconsistent with the environmental bias. However, in contrast to the classic Collins experiment [7], we expectedly observed a larger genetic than non-genetic effect in the present data, as 78% of the children with a head-tilt to the right and a rotation of face and chin to the left were right-handed, although their visual experience of their hands would favour left-handedness. Therefore, a model incorporating both genetic and non-genetic influences on handedness would be the most suitable one to explain the present data.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…There is also evidence for an impact of a non-genetic experience based factor on behavioural asymmetries in non-human mammals. For example, pawedness in mice is strongly influenced by an environmental bias that favours a left-or right-sided preference [7]. Only about 10% of the mice in this experiment showed a paw preference inconsistent with the environmental bias.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

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Visual experience affects handedness

Ocklenburg

Bürger

Westermann

et al. 2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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a b s t r a c tIn birds, a lateralised visual input during early development importantly modulates morphological and functional asymmetries of vision. We tested the hypothesis that human handedness similarly results from a combination of inborn and experience-driven factors by analysing sidedness in children suffering from congenital muscular torticollis. These children display a permanently tilted asymmetric head posture to the left or to the right in combination with a contralateral rotation of face and chin, which could lead to an increased visual experience of the hand contralateral to the head-tilt. Relative to controls, torticollischildren had a higher probability of right-or left-handedness when having a head-tilt to the opposite side. No statistical significant relation between head position and direction of functional asymmetries was found for footedness and eye-preference, although the means show a non-significant trend in the same direction as was observed for handedness. Thus, an increased visual control of the hand during early childhood seems to modulate handedness and possibly other lateral preferences to a lesser extent. These findings not only show that human handedness is affected by early lateralised visual experience but also speak in favour of a combined gene-environment model for its development.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Visual experience affects handedness

Ocklenburg

Bürger

Westermann

et al. 2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…Although their ridden training cannot be attributed to the unbiased result due to the unridden horses also being unbiased, it is possible that this ambidextrous training has kept horses unbiased in limb preference, as environmental factors have been demonstrated to affect handedness in humans. Studies of human twins suggest that handedness is influenced by environment more than biology (Collins, 1975), and the increase in proportions of people who are left-handers, from about 2% to over 10%, probably due to less social pressure to be right-handed (Levy, 1974;Brackenridge, 1981) is also evidence of an environmental effect on handedness. Another example of motor bias being influenced by environment is that in humans, practice affects performance in various motor bias tests (Corballis, 1983).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it is possible that equal riding to the left and right may reduce any inherent motor bias, as the relationship between asymmetrical brain function and motor asymmetries is similar across vertebrate species (Rogers and Andrew, 2002), and in humans and mice, environmental factors such as motor training influenced motor preferences (Levy, 1974;Collins, 1975;Brackenridge, 1981).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses do not exhibit motor bias when their balance is challenged

Wells

Blache

2008

Animal

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In many equestrian pursuits such as dressage and show-jumping, it is important that the horse exhibits the same level of balance when ridden to the left as when ridden to the right in canter -that is, to show no motor bias. It is a long-held belief within such disciplines that to reduce bias that exists in horses and thus to enhance symmetry of performance to the left and right, the horse needs to be worked equally in both directions, although there is a lack of scientific evidence of this influencing bias. There also is little compelling evidence for either the existence or absence of motor bias in unridden (and therefore younger) or ridden (and therefore older) horses. In this study, we tested whether there was a difference in motor bias between unridden (n 5 15) and ridden (n 5 15) horses when their balance was challenged by cantering them in circles both to the left and to the right on the lunge. As indicators of a difference in balance between the left and right and thus as indicators of motor bias, we conducted three lunging tests -time spent in canter, whether the horse cantered on the correct lead and whether it became disunited. A grazing stance test, where the extended foreleg during grazing was recorded as the preferred forelimb, was also used to compare responses in a test where balance was not actively challenged, to the three lunging tests where balance was actively challenged. No bias was found in either the unridden or ridden groups when their balance was challenged, but ridden horses exhibited a motor bias in grazing stance -when their balance was not challenged. There was also a correlation between the responses in all three lunging tests, but none between the grazing stance test and any of the three lunging tests. We therefore conclude that neither ridden nor unridden horses are biased when their balance is challenged; thus it cannot be concluded that ambidextrous training affects an inherent bias, and that estimation of motor bias in horses is affected by the test conditions. Finally, if ridden horses are truly unbiased, strong human motor bias might be responsible for the common perception amongst riders that horses are biased.

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“…Like handedness in humans, paw preference in mice, as assessed in a food-reaching task, has been widely used as a robust index of functional brain asymmetry to dissect out the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying lateralization (Cabib et al, 1995;Collins, 1975Collins, , 1985Denenberg et al, 1991;Nielsen et al, 1997;Nosten et al, 1989;Signore et al, 1991b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constitutive Hyperdopaminergia is Functionally Associated with Reduced Behavioral Lateralization

Morice

Denis

Macario

et al. 2004

Neuropsychopharmacol

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According to the dopamine (DA) hypothesis of schizophrenia and the strong evidence for decreased cerebral lateralization in schizophrenic patients, we postulated that hyperactivity of the dopaminergic system could be associated with a reduced behavioral lateralization in mice. Mice lacking the dopamine transporter (DAT) gene were used as a genetic model of persistent hyperdopaminergia. The DAT null mutation was transferred on C57BL/6JOrl (B6) and DBA/2JOrl (D2) inbred backgrounds for more than 10 generations of backcrossing to derive three DAT strains, B6, D2, and B6 Â D2(F 1 ). Adult mutant mice of the three DAT strains and their littermates were tested for paw preference using Collins' protocol. Our results demonstrated that, whatever the genetic background, persistent hyperdopaminergia directly impairs the degree of lateralization without affecting the direction. Our results support the degree of lateralization as a good candidate phenotype to further improve genetic analysis of cerebral lateralization in normal and pathological conditions. Neuropsychopharmacology Keywords: schizophrenia; direction and degree of asymmetry; paw preference; knockout mice; cocaine INTRODUCTIONAnomalies in behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurophysiological asymmetry have been widely documented in schizophrenic patients, supporting lateralization as a good candidate symptom that could contribute to clarifying schizophrenia heterogeneity (Leboyer et al, 1998). A metaanalysis of 19 studies on schizophrenia showed that the prevalence of non-right-handedness was significantly higher in patients than in healthy subjects (Sommer et al, 2001). Similarly, in the meta-analysis of three prospective followup studies, pre-schizophrenic subjects were significantly more often non-right-handed than the general population (Sommer et al, 2001). Furthermore, in vivo imaging studies of schizophrenia have provided evidence that the right-left asymmetry of the dopamine (DA) synthesis capacity and of the dopamine transporter (DAT) binding in the caudate are both lost in antipsychotic-naive patients (Hietala et al, 1999(Hietala et al, , 1995Hsiao et al, 2003;Laakso et al, 2000). In addition, neuroleptics are able to change the balance of hemispheric activity, thus improving left-hemispheric attentional processes (for a review, see Gruzelier, 1999), and a recent study demonstrated that haloperidol-induced downregulation of DA synthesis was significantly greater in the left than in the right striatum (Grunder et al, 2003). Finally, a highly significant correlation was reported between depressive symptoms in antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia and DA synthesis capacity in the left striatum (Hietala et al, 1999).Taken together, these data support the hypothesis of a potential link between cerebral lateralization and schizophrenia, and suggest that abnormal asymmetry of the dopaminergic transmission could be one of the key neurobiological substrates for this functional relationship. Based on the DA hypothesis of schizophrenia, which attributes the positive sc...

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When Left-Handed Mice Live in Right-Handed Worlds

Cited by 253 publications

References 7 publications

Visual experience affects handedness

Visual experience affects handedness

Horses do not exhibit motor bias when their balance is challenged

Constitutive Hyperdopaminergia is Functionally Associated with Reduced Behavioral Lateralization

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