title: Paw preference in rats.
abstract: We applied a food-reaching test to investigate paw preference in 114 Spraque-Dawley rats and to determine whether a correlation exists between paw preference and gender. We found that 70.2% of rats were right-pawed, 19.3% were left-pawed, and 11.9% were ambidextrous. No significant difference was found between right-pawed, left-pawed, and ambidextrous male and female rats. The results indicate that the distribution of paw preference in rats is similar to that of other animals and to human handedness.
authors.affiliation: Medical Faculty, Department of Physiology, Gaziantep University, Turkey. pence@gantep.edu.tr
authors.forename: Sadrettin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pençe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005552:Forelimb / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012737:Sex Factors