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Prenatal thumb sucking is related to postnatal handedness

Peter G Hepper1, Deborah L Wells, Catherine Lynch

  • 1School of Psychology, The Queen's University, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK. p.hepper@qub.ac.uk

Neuropsychologia
|February 15, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Prenatal thumb sucking predicts childhood handedness. Fetal thumb sucking, a form of lateralized motor behavior, is linked to a child's dominant hand later in life.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human behavior

Background:

  • Prenatal development involves complex motor behaviors.
  • Handedness is a well-documented human trait with debated origins.
  • Thumb sucking in utero is a observable fetal behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between prenatal thumb sucking and postnatal handedness.
  • To determine if fetal lateralized motor behavior predicts childhood handedness.
  • To explore sex differences in the association between prenatal behavior and handedness.

Main Methods:

  • Follow-up study of 75 individuals from fetal observation to 10-12 years of age.
  • Assessment of handedness using a modified Edinburgh Handedness Inventory.
  • Observation of fetal thumb sucking behavior in utero.

Main Results:

  • All 60 fetuses exhibiting right-hand thumb sucking were right-handed postnatally.
  • 10 of 15 fetuses showing left-hand thumb sucking were left-handed children; 5 were right-handed.
  • Male fetuses who sucked their left thumb were more likely to become right-handed children than females.

Conclusions:

  • Prenatal lateralized motor behavior, such as thumb sucking, is associated with postnatal handedness.
  • The association appears stronger for fetuses exhibiting right-sided thumb sucking.
  • Fetal behavior provides insights into the developmental origins of handedness.

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