Human bodily asymmetry relates to behavioral lateralization and may not reliably reflect developmental instability

Background: The link between behavioral lateralization and bodily asymmetry in humans is studied to investigate the reliability of fluctuating asymmetry as a measure of developmental instability; (2) Methods: Morphological asymmetries of arms and legs, obtained from 3D body scans, were correlated with different measures of behavioral lateralization; (3) Results: Observed associations were in the directions expected, showing that more asymmetric use of the body increases asymmetry, especially in the arms, and more symmetric body use appears to have a symmetrizing effect; and (4) Conclusions: The results presented here question the suitability of human bodily asymmetry in arms and legsor at least part of themas a measure of developmental instability. There is a need for future research that identifies regions of the body that are not affected by behavioral lateralization and can reliably reflect developmental instability.

Jaar van publicatie:2018

Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open