Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T14:24:20.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Motor and Sighting Dominance in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorder

Evidence for Right-hand Grip Strength Prominence in Paranoid Schizophrenia and Bipolar Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Edward L. Merrin
Edward L. Merrin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine, and Psychiatry Service (116N),∗ Veterans Administration Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, California, 94121, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Unusually frequent sinistral motor and sighting dominance have sometimes been reported in schizophrenics, although the majority of patients are still dextral. In this study, assessment of lateral dominance also included a measure of grip strength—a potentially more sensitive index of dominance or lateralised impairment; schizophrenics, non-schizophrenic patients (affective disorder), and normal controls were studied. There were no differences in handedness or sighting dominance. Affective patients, particularly bipolar psychotics, had greater right-handed grip superiority than normals or non-paranoid schizophrenics. Paranoid schizophrenics were similar, being significantly greater in right-sided dominance than non-paranoids, who tended toward a smaller value than normals. Hand grip asymmetry was highly correlated with handedness in normals, but not in patients. The possibility is discussed that these results may reflect asymmetrical patterns of cerebral impairment or attentional bias.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 5 , May 1985 , pp. 539 - 544
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annett, M. (1970) Classification of hand preference by association analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 61, 303–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Annett, M. (1976) A coordination of hand preference and skill replicated. British Journal of Psychology, 67, 587–592.Google Scholar
Annett, M. & Ockwell, A. (1980) Birth order, birth stress, and handedness. Cortex, 16, 181–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barry, R. J. & James, A. L. (1978) Handedness in autistics, retardates, and normals of a wide age range. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 8, 315–323.Google Scholar
Chaugule, V. B. & Master, R. S. (1981) Impaired cerebral dominance and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 23–24.Google Scholar
Clooney, J. L. & Murray, D. J. (1977) Same-different judgements in paranoid and schizophrenic patients: a laterality study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 655–658.Google Scholar
Crinella, F. M., Beck, F. W. & Robinson, J. W. (1971) Unilateral dominance is not related to neuropsychological integrity. Child Development, 42, 2033–2054.Google Scholar
Crovttz, H. F. & Zener, K. (1962) A group-test for assessing hand- and eye-dominance. American Journal of Psychology, 75, 271–276.Google Scholar
Dodrill, C. B. (1978) The hand dynamometer as a neuropsychological measure. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 1432–1435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dvirskii, A. E. (1976) Functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres in clinical types of schizophrenia. Neurosciences and Behavioural Physiology, 7, 236–239.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. & Yeudall, L. T. (1979) Neuropsychological investigation of schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychoses. In Hemisphere Asymmetries of Function in Psychopathology (eds. Gruzelier, J. & Flor-Henry, P.). Elsevier: North-Holland Biomedical Press.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. & Yeudall, L. T. Stefanyk, W. & Howarth, B. (1975) The neuropsychological correlates of the functional psychoses. ICRS Medical Science: Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, 3, 34.Google Scholar
Goldstein, G. & Halperin, K. M. (1977) Neuropsychological differences among subtypes of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 34–40.Google Scholar
Gruzelier, J. H. (1980) Cerebral laterality and psychopathology: fact and fiction. Psychological Medicine, 11, 219–227.Google Scholar
Gruzelier, J. H. (1981) Hemispheric imbalances masquerading as paranoid and nonparanoid syndromes? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7, 662–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gur, R. E. (1977) Motoric laterality imbalance in schizophrenia: a possible concomitant of left hemisphere dysfunction. Archives General Psychiatry, 34, 33–37.Google Scholar
Hardyck, C. & Petrinovich, L. F. (1977) Left-handedness. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 385–404.Google Scholar
Hicks, R. A., Elliot, D., Garbesi, L. & Martin, S. (1979) Multiple birth risk factors and the distribution of handedness. Cortex, 15, 135–137.Google Scholar
Johnstone, J., Galin, D. & Herron, J. (1979) Choice of handedness measures in studies of hemispheric specialization. International Journal of Neuroscience, 9, 71–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, D. F. & Davis, J. M. (1969) Diagnosis and Drug Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders, pp 50 & 186. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Krynicki, V. E. & Nahas, A. B. (1979) Differing latcralized perceptual-motor patterns in schizophrenics and non-psychotic children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 49, 603–610.Google Scholar
Lerner, J., Nachson, I. & Cármon, A. (1977) Responses of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics in a dichotic listening task. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 164, 247–252.Google Scholar
Lewis, R. F., Nelson, R. W. & Eggertsen, C. (1979) Neuropsychological test performances of paranoid schizophrenic and braindamaged patients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35, 54–59.Google Scholar
Lindsay, J., Ounsted, C. & Richards, P. (1979) Long-term outcome in children with temporal lobe seizures. III: Psychiatric aspects in childhood and adult life. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 21, 630–636.Google Scholar
Lishman, W. A. & McMeekan, E. R. L. (1976) Hand preference patterns in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 158–166.Google Scholar
McMeekan, E. R. L. & Lishman, W. A. (1975) Retest reliabilities and interrelationship of The Annett Hand Preference Questionnaire and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. British Journal of Psychology, 66, 53–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merrin, E. L. (1981) Schizophrenia and brain asymmetry: evaluation of evidence for dominant lobe dysfunction. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 169, 405–416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nasrallah, H. A., Keelor, K., Van Schroeder, C. & McCalley-Whitters, M. (1981) Motoric lateralization in schizophrenic males. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 1114–1115.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., McCalley-Whitters, M. & Kuperman, S. (1982) Neurological differences between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia: Part I. Sensory-motor lateralization. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 43, 305–306.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., McCalley-Whitters, M. (1982) Motor lateralization in manic males. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 521–522.Google Scholar
Oddy, H. C. & Lobstein, T. J. (1972) Hand and eye dominance in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 331–332.Google Scholar
Piran, N., Bigler, E. D. & Cohen, C. (1982) Motoric laterality and eye dominance suggest unique pattern of cerebral organization in schizophrenia. Archives General Psychiatry, 39, 1006–1010.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porac, C. & Coren, S. (1976) The dominant eye. Psychological Bulletin, 83, 880–897.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raczkowski, D., Kalat, J. W. & Nebes, R. (1974) Reliability and validity of some handedness questionnaire items. Neuropsvchologia, 12, 43–47.Google Scholar
Satz, P., Achenbach, K. & Fennell, E. (1967) Correlations between assessed manual laterality and predicted speech laterality in a normal population. Neuropsychologia, 5, 295–310.Google Scholar
Sherwin, I. (1981) Psychosis associated with epilepsy: significance of the laterality of the epileptogenic lesion. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 44, 83–85.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria (3rd ed.). New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, D. C. (1975) Factors influencing the occurrence of schizophrenic-like psychosis in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Psychological Medicine, 5, 249–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M. A., Redfield, J. & Abrams, R. (1981) Neuropsychological dysfunction in schizophrenia and affective disease. Biological Psychiatry, 16, 467–478.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. A., Dalton, R. & Fleminger, J. J. (1980) Handedness in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 375–383.Google Scholar
Walker, H. A. & Birch, H. G. (1970) Lateral preference and right-left awareness in schizophrenic children. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 151, 341–351.Google Scholar
Watson, C. C., Thomas, R. W., Felling, J. & Anderson, D. (1969) Differentiation of organics from schizophrenics with the trailmaking, dynamometer, critical flicker fusion, and light-intensity matching tests. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 25, 130–133.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.