Laterality in Maternal Cradling and Infant Positional Biases: Implications for the Development and Evolution of Hand Preferences in Nonhuman Primates.
Left-sided maternal cradling has been widely reported in human populations. In this paper, I review the evidence of laterality in maternal cradling and infant positional biases in non-human primates. The review revealed some evidence of population-left sided cradling in great apes but little consistency in bias was found among Old and New World monkeys. Very little data have been reported in prosimians. I further describe how asymmetries in either maternal cradling or infant positional biases may explain individual and species differences in hand preference.
Division of Psychobiology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, Georgia.
William D
WD
Hopkins