Dual task performance during bimanual coordination.
Right-handed men and women tapped two mechanical keys in time to an entraining metronome, using each hand alone and the two hands in alternation. Concurrently, they recited familiar nursery rhymes or read unfamiliar text out loud. The direction of interference from the language-based tasks on manual performance was measured relative to baseline performance. Magnitude and direction of interference from both language tasks were greater during bimanual alternation than unimanual performance. However, the direction of interference during bimanual alternation differed significantly between right-handed men and women, and the sex differences in direction of interference differed according to the characteristics of the language-based secondary task. Right-handed subjects with a family history of sinistrality showed less overall and less lateralized dual task interference than right-handed persons without a family history of sinistrality.
D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011930:Reaction Time; D012737:Sex Factors; D013060:Speech