Westergaard G C, Byrne G, Suomi S J
Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Poolesville, MD 20837, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 1998 Jan;32(1):45-50. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199801)32:1<45::aid-dev5>3.0.co;2-t.
We investigated the development of lateral bias in infant tufted capuchins (Cebus apella) by recording head orientation during the first 2 postnatal weeks and hand preference during Weeks 23 to 24 and 47 to 48. We found that lateral bias for head orientation at 1 to 2 weeks was negatively related to hand preference at 23 to 24 weeks. Further, we found population-level left-hand preferences at both 23 to 24 and 47 to 48 weeks, and that hand preference at 23 to 24 weeks is positively correlated with hand preference at 47 to 48 weeks. We also noted a trend toward a sex difference in the direction of neonatal head orientation, with males exhibiting a left-side preference and females exhibiting a lack of preference toward either side. Our findings differ from those obtained in studies with developing humans and chimpanzees in two important ways. First, the trend for head orientation and hand preference in infant capuchins was to the left rather than to the right. Second, we found a negative relation between direction of early head orientation and subsequent hand preference. It seems likely that research examining cerebral development in capuchins will help us to better understand the occurrence of left-handedness and the development of cerebral dominance in humans.
我们通过记录出生后前两周的头部朝向以及第23至24周和第47至48周的用手偏好，研究了婴儿簇绒卷尾猴（僧帽猴）的侧向偏好发展情况。我们发现，1至2周时头部朝向的侧向偏好与23至24周时的用手偏好呈负相关。此外，我们发现在第23至24周和第47至48周时群体水平上存在左手偏好，并且23至24周时的用手偏好与47至48周时的用手偏好呈正相关。我们还注意到新生儿头部朝向方向存在性别差异的趋势，雄性表现出左侧偏好，而雌性对两侧均无偏好。我们的研究结果在两个重要方面与对发育中的人类和黑猩猩的研究所获结果不同。第一，婴儿卷尾猴头部朝向和用手偏好的趋势是向左而非向右。第二，我们发现早期头部朝向方向与随后的用手偏好之间存在负相关。研究卷尾猴的大脑发育似乎有可能帮助我们更好地理解人类左利手的出现以及大脑优势的发展。
