title: Line bisection-based hemisphericity estimates of university students and professionals: evidence of sorting during higher education and career selection.
abstract: Recently, hemisphericity has been assessed by six intercorrelated methods. Here, one of these, the "Best Hand Test," a two-hand line bisection-based biophysical method relatively independent of language, culture, or education, was applied to the measurement of hemisphericity distributions within large groups. Entering university students (n=402) enrolled in three lower division courses were chosen as a reference population. Each of these classes contained about 56% left brain-oriented individuals. In contrast, mean student left-brain distributions in four specialized, upper level courses (n=180), ranged from 35 to 68%, suggestive of hemisphericity sorting. Even more pronounced hemisphericity distribution differences were found within university representatives of 15 professions (n=421) and within professional subspecialists (n=45). For example, of biochemists (n=18), 83% were left brain-oriented, while among astronomers (n=21), only 29% were. These results are of intrinsic interest, and demonstrate the capability of the Best Hand Test to estimate hemisphericity in large groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Hawaii School of Medicine, 3430 Keahi Place, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. bemorton@hawaii.edu
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Morton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities