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The effect of handedness on mental rotation of hands: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Body-specific mental rotation is thought to rely upon internal representations of motor actions. Handedness is a source of distinctly different motor experience that shapes the development of such internal representations. Yet, the influence of handedness upon hand mental rotation has never been systematically evaluated. Five databases were searched for studies evaluating hand left/right judgement tasks in adults. Two independent reviewers performed screening, data extraction, and critical appraisal. Eighty-seven datasets were included, with 72 datasets pooled; all had unclear/high risk of bias. Meta-analyses showed that right-handers were faster, but not more accurate, than left-handers at hand mental rotation. A unique effect of handedness was found on performance facilitation for images corresponding to the dominant hand. Meta-analyses showed that right-handers were quicker at identifying images of right hands than left hands—a dominance advantage not evident in left-handers. Differing hand representations (more lateralised hand dominance in right-handers) likely underpin these findings. Given potential differences between hand preference and motor performance, future research exploring their distinct contributions to mental rotation is warranted.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Ms Ashley Grant (University of South Australia) for her assistance in the study review process and Prof Tomohiko Nishigami (Prefectural University of Hiroshima) for his assistance in translating studies written in Japanese. The authors would also like to acknowledge the following researchers who shared raw or summary data for this review (note: not all studies were included in the review, in some cases raw data resulted in confirmation of study exclusion): Dr. Angela Sirigu, in collaboration with Dr. Daniele Nico and Dr. Elena Daprati (Institute of Cognitive Science Marc Jeannerod UMR5229 CNRS); Dr. Annina Schmid (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences; University of Oxford) in collaboration with Dr. Michel Coppieters (VU); Prof Peter Brugger and Dr. Marion Funk (University Hospital of Zurich); Dr. Nady Hoyek (Université Claude Bernard Lyon I—UFR STAPS); Dr. Federico Fiori (Kings College London) in collaboration with Dr. Gabriella Bottini (Univeresita di Pavia); Dr. Floris de Lange (Donders Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen) in collaboration with Prof Guy Vingerhoets (Ghent University); Dr. Gilles Vannuscorps (UCLouvain); Dr. Helene Hjelmervik (Universitetet i Bergen); Dr. Arjan ter Horst (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen; Dr. Jacqueline Williams (Victoria University); Dr. Kaoru Sekiyama (Kumamoto University); Dr. Kotaro Takeda (Fujita Health University) in collaboration with Hiroyuki Kato (International University of Health and Welfare Hospital) and Dr. Nobuaki Shimoda (Kyorin University); Dr. Laura Zapparoli (Università degli Studi de Milano-Bicocca); Prof Lucette Toussaint (l'Université de Poitiers); Dr. Mark Dalecki (York University); Dr. Marco Hirnstein (Universitetet i Bergen) in collaboration with Dr. Markus Haussmann (Durham University); Dr. Mirta Fiorio (Università di Verona) in collaboration with Dr. Salvatoremaria Aglioti (Sapienza Università di Roma); Dr. Nuala Brady (University College Dublin) in collaboration with Aine Ni Choisdealbha (University of Lancaster); Petra Winter-Katschnig (Medical University of Graz); Dr. Silvio Ionta (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne); Dr. Sarah Wallwork (University of South Australia); Dr. Yan Zhang (institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University); Dr. Hiroshi Kurumadani (Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University); Dr. Ian Fuelscher (Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University); Dr. David Punt (School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Birmingham); Dr. Xiaoli Guo (School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University); Dr. Claire Kemlin (L'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière); A/Prof Shahrzad Mazhari (Neuroscience Research Centre, Kerman University of Medical Sciences); Dr. Nicoló Magni (Department of Physiotherapy, Auckland University of Technology); Dr. René Pelletier (School of Rehabilitation, University of Montréal); Prof Daniel Voyer (Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick); Dr. Michel Andres (Université catholique de Louvain) in collaboration with Dr. Barbara Pelgrims (Université catholique de Louvain); Dr. Annika Reinersmann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum); Megan Hudson (The University of Sydney); Dr. Martin Lotze (University of Griefswald) and Florent Lebon (University of Auckland). Last, the authors would like to acknowledge the researchers who corresponded with us, but who either did not have the necessary data available (confirmed or unclear) or study exclusion was confirmed prior to data sharing: Dr. Anne Bockler (University of Würzburg); Dr. Anna Devlin (Monash University); Dr. Annemarijke Boonstra (Reavlidatie-Friesland); Dr. Barbara Tomasino and Prof Raffaella Rumiati (SISSA); Dr. Claude-Alain Hauert (Université de Genevé) in collaboration with Leila Petit (Macquire University)”; Dr. Etienne Olivier (in memorandum) and Dr. Michel Andres (Université catholique de Louvain); Dr. Francesca Ferri (University of Essex); Prof Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma); Dr. Hiroaki Kawamichi (Gunma University); Dr. John Schwoebel (Utica College); Dr. Johnathan Marsden (University of Plymouth); Dr. Kazmer Karadi (University of Pécs); Dr. Markus Kruger (University of Griefswald); Dr. Corrinne Cian (Université Grenoble Alpes); Dr. Ruth Seurinck (University of Ghent); Dr. Stephen Kosslyn (Foundry College & Harvard University); Dr. Shahrzad Mazhari (KMU University); Prof Stephen Woods (University of Houston); Francois Tremblay (School of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Ottawa); Dr. Christian Hyde (Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, Deakin University); Dr. Joachim Liepert (Neurorehabilitation Department, Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg); Dr. Eva Bonda (Founder & Director of NeuroAisthesis); Prof Lorimer Moseley in collaboration with Ms Helen Bray (University of South Australia); Prof Blake Johnson (Macquarie University, AUS) and Ms Zoe Thayer (University of Sydney); Dr. Tsubasa Kawasaki (Department of Health Promotion Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University) in collaboration with Dr. Takahiro Higuchi (Department of Health Promotion Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University); A/Prof Justin Bonny (Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University); Dr. Lynn Cooper (Columbia University); Nobuyuki Kawai (Nagoya University); Erica Weber (University of California) and Steven Paul Woods (University of California).

Funding

TRS is supported by a National Health & Medical Research Career Development Fellowship (ID1141735). These funding sources played no role in the conception, analysis, or publication of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IIMPACT in Health, Allied Health and Human Performance Unit, The University of South Australia, G.P.O. Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    H. G. Jones, F. A. Braithwaite, L. M. Edwards & T. R. Stanton

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, England, UK

    H. G. Jones

  3. Allied Health and Human Performance Unit, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    R. S. Causby

  4. Developmental Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

    M. Conson

  5. Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia

    T. R. Stanton

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  1. H. G. Jones
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Contributions

TRS, RSC and LME contributed to the study conception and design. All the authors performed the literature search and data analysis. HGJ, FB, TRS and MC drafted the review. All the authors critically revised the review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. R. Stanton.

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Conflict of interest

TRS received funding from Eli Lilly Ltd to cover travel and accommodation costs in September 2014; this was unrelated to the present topic area. The remaining authors (HGJ, FAB, LME, RSC, and MC) have no conflicting interests to declare.

Ethical approval

This review contains only previously published studies. All the procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the original studies that comprised the present review.

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426_2020_1444_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary File 1: This file includes the Medline search strategy for this systematic review and meta-analysis (PDF 89 kb)

426_2020_1444_MOESM2_ESM.docx

Supplementary File 2: This file includes the sensitivity analyses undertaken for Comparisons 1 to 5 for reaction time and accuracy, where applicable. (DOCX 15160 kb)

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Jones, H.G., Braithwaite, F.A., Edwards, L.M. et al. The effect of handedness on mental rotation of hands: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Research 85, 2829–2881 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01444-8

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