Are you born or do you become right-handed or left-handed? A study led by Valentina Parma, researcher at the International School for Advanced Studies - SISSA of Trieste, and Professor Umberto Castiello of the University of Padua, just published on Scientific Reports, shows that hand preference is already well defined at the 18th week of gestation. Analysing the characteristics of several foetal movements, the researchers have been able to accurately foresee the motor preference observed in the same boys and girls at age nine. The predictive capacity of the method used seems to be a good starting point for the early recognition of pathologies characterised by cerebral asymmetries, such as depression, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.
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