Does Irish-dance training influence lower-limb asymmetry?

Irish-dance is a dance form where asymmetry is required. This study investigated the influence of Irish-dance training on four lower-limb asymmetries by comparing 100 Irish-dancers and 100 non-dancers. All four asymmetries showed significant differences between the dancers and the non-dancers: the rigidity of the dance training influencing those asymmetries.

A survey of sidedness in Northern Irish schoolchildren: the interaction of sex, age, and task.

The study examined lateral preference in use of hands, feet, eyes, and ears in a group of nearly 5000 schoolchildren in Northern Ireland. Performance tests were carried out by student teachers during their school-based work in 2002 and data were submitted on-line. Six tasks were used-writing, throwing a ball, kicking a ball, hopping, listening to quiet sounds, and looking through a cardboard tube. There was right bias in every task but the extent of it differed between tasks. Males were generally less right biased than females, and younger children less than older ones; for hearing, the changes with age were markedly different in the two sexes, with females showing a strong increase in right bias but males showing none. These observational results do little to illuminate the reasons for the patterns observed.

Kissing laterality and handedness.

Kissing behaviour was observed between kissing couples: about 80% turned their heads to the right to kiss. To remove the influence of one kissing partner upon the other, kissing behaviour was also observed between participants and a symmetrical doll's face: about 77% turned their heads to the right to kiss. There was no significant difference in handedness between right- and left-kissers: both groups were predominantly right-kissers. It is thought that motor bias rather than emotive bias influences kissing behaviour.