Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology, Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University and CNRS, 13331, Marseille, France.
Dev Psychobiol. 2013 Sep;55(6):637-50. doi: 10.1002/dev.21150.
Within the evolutionary framework about the origin of human handedness and hemispheric specialization for language, the question of expression of population-level manual biases in nonhuman primates and their potential continuities with humans remains controversial. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of evidence showing consistent population-level handedness particularly for complex manual behaviors in both monkeys and apes. In the present article, within a large comparative approach among primates, we will review our contribution to the field and the handedness literature related to two particular sophisticated manual behaviors regarding their potential and specific implications for the origins of hemispheric specialization in humans: bimanual coordinated actions and gestural communication. Whereas bimanual coordinated actions seem to elicit predominance of left-handedness in arboreal primates and of right-handedness in terrestrial primates, all handedness studies that have investigated gestural communication in several primate species have reported stronger degree of population-level right-handedness compared to noncommunicative actions. Communicative gestures and bimanual actions seem to affect differently manual asymmetries in both human and nonhuman primates and to be related to different lateralized brain substrates. We will discuss (1) how the data of hand preferences for bimanual coordinated actions highlight the role of ecological factors in the evolution of handedness and provide additional support the postural origin theory of handedness proposed by MacNeilage [MacNeilage [2007]. Present status of the postural origins theory. In W. D. Hopkins (Ed.), The evolution of hemispheric specialization in primates (pp. 59-91). London: Elsevier/Academic Press] and (2) the hypothesis that the emergence of gestural communication might have affected lateralization in our ancestor and may constitute the precursors of the hemispheric specialization for language.
在关于人类手性和语言半球专门化起源的进化框架内，关于非人类灵长类动物群体水平的手动偏向的表达及其与人类的潜在连续性的问题仍然存在争议。然而，越来越多的证据表明，特别是在猴子和猿类中，存在着一致的群体水平的手性，特别是对于复杂的手动行为。在本文中，我们将在灵长类动物的大规模比较方法中，回顾我们在该领域的贡献以及与两种特定复杂手动行为相关的手性文献，这些行为可能对人类半球专门化的起源具有潜在和具体的影响：双手协调动作和手势交流。虽然双手协调动作似乎会导致树栖灵长类动物中惯用左手的优势和地栖灵长类动物中惯用右手的优势，但对几种灵长类动物的手势交流进行的所有手性研究都报告了比非交际动作更强的群体水平惯用右手程度。交际手势和双手协调动作似乎会以不同的方式影响人类和非人类灵长类动物的手性不对称，并与不同的侧化大脑基质相关。我们将讨论（1）双手协调动作的手性偏好数据如何突出生态因素在手性进化中的作用，并为 MacNeilage 提出的手性姿势起源理论提供更多支持[MacNeilage [2007]。姿势起源理论的现状。在 W.D.霍普金斯（编辑），灵长类动物半球专门化的进化（第 59-91 页）。伦敦：爱思唯尔/学术出版社]，以及（2）假设手势交流的出现可能影响了我们祖先的侧化，并可能构成语言半球专门化的先驱。
