Comparison of preferred and nonpreferred hand performance on four neuropsychological motor tasks

Abstract

This study explored the intermanual difference scores in 426 normal subjects on four neuropsychological tests, taking into consideration the effects of age, education, sex, and lateral preference. For the Finger Tapping Test and Hand Dynamometer measures, subjects who consistently demonstrated right lateral preference had greater intermanual differences than did left-handed subjects, while analyses on the Grooved Pegboard revealed that females tended to have larger percent difference scores than did males. Analyses on the fourth measure, the Tactual Performance Test (TPT), did not reveal differences related to lateral preference or sex. However, older and less well educated subjects tended not to improve from Trial 1 to Trial 2 of the TPT, possibly due to less efficient learning. These results suggest that interpretation of intermanual differences in neuropsychological assessment would benefit from consideration of demographic and lateral preference variables, in combinations that differ for specific tests.