title: Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are predominantly right-handed: replication in three populations of apes.
abstract: Population-level right-handedness has historically been considered a hallmark of human evolution. Even though recent studies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have demonstrated population-level right-handedness for certain behaviors, some have questioned the validity and consistency of these findings by arguing that reported laterality effects are specific to certain colonies of apes and to those chimpanzees reared by humans. The authors report evidence of population-level right-handedness in 3 separate colonies of chimpanzees. Moreover, handedness in the 3 colonies was unrelated to the proportion of subjects that were raised by humans. This is the strongest evidence to date that population-level handedness is evident in chimpanzees and is not an artifact of human rearing.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychobiology, Emory University, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. lrcbh@rmy.emory.edu
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Hopkins
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wesley
authors.forename: M Kay
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Izard
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hook
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schapiro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D013045:Species Specificity