[Handedness, cerebral dysfunction and dyslexia]

A frequency distribution of handedness and its relations with minor signs of neurological dysfunction was studied in a group of 56 dyslexic children and 56 good readers. An unusual frequency of 18% left-handed children in the dyslexic group and the high frequency of soft signs in this lefthanded children, is in concordance with recent hypothesis about the dysgenesic brain origin of dyslexia and lefthandedness, postulated by Galaburda, Geschwind and others. They suggest a distorted cortical development of the brain areas related with linguistic functions, with subsequent expression on verbal language reading ability and handedness.