Cortex
Volume 46, Issue 6 , Pages 781-786, June 2010

Language dominance, handedness and sex: Recessive X-linkage theory and test

  • Gregory V. Jones

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
    • ,
  • Maryanne Martin

      Affiliations

    • University of Oxford, UK

Received 3 July 2008; received in revised form 13 February 2009 and 5 April 2009; accepted 20 July 2009. published online 17 August 2009.

Action editor Alan Beaton

Abstract 

The possibility is investigated that cerebral dominance for language and handedness share a common X-linkage and that the relation between the two is therefore a function of sex. In particular, an X-linked recessive account is shown to predict an overall configuration of language dominance, handedness and sex within which there is a sex effect in the pattern of language dominance among right-handed but not left-handed people. The recent accurate determination of cerebral dominance among relatively large samples of the general population by means of functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography makes it possible to test this new theory rigorously, and its parameter-free pattern of predictions is found to be supported.

Keywords: Language dominance, Cerebral dominance, Handedness, Sex, X-linkage

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PII: S0010-9452(09)00223-8

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2009.07.009

Cortex
Volume 46, Issue 6 , Pages 781-786, June 2010

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