Lateral and sex differences in manual gesture during conversation

Abstract

To examine whether sex differences in cerebral lateralisation for speech can be observed through lateral differences in manual gesturing during natural conversation, 100 individuals (50 male and 50 female) were observed following a procedure similar to that described by Kimura (1973a,b). For males, there was a significant increase in the number of gestures made with the right hand during speech. When males were listening, there was a significant increase in the number of gestures made with the left hand. This result was not observed in the females studied, who did not demonstrate significant manual asymmetries in gesturing during either speech or listening. This result is consistent with claims that there is a sex difference in hemispheric specialisation wherein males are more functionally lateralised than females.