title: Footedness across the age span among Brazilian right- and left-handers.
abstract: Previous cross-sectional surveys have reported a decreasing prevalence of left-footedness with increasing age. Bell and Gabbard attributed this pattern to a developmental process wherein the right hemisphere ages earlier than the left, leading to a decline in left-footedness among older individuals. A major flaw in this hypothesis is that age-related data were derived exclusively from right-handed samples. To test the generality of the hypothesis we obtained foot preferences from 1462 right and 172 left-handed Brazilians ranging from 10 to 94 years of age. In only one of the three analyses did dextrals show the predicted age-related decline. Together with accelerating trends towards left-footedness among older males and nonlinear trends among left-handers as a group, these results do not sustain the basic assumptions implicit in the right hemisphere aging hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Department de Psicologia Experimental, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil. wlbm@cpgp.ufpa.br
authors.forename: William Lee Berdel
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Angélica Homobono
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Carlos Benedito
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Paixão
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012916:Soccer