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International Journal of Neuroscience

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The Relationship Between Nonverbal Intelligence, Familial Sinistrality and

Geschwind Scores in Right-Handed Female Subjects
Üner Tan a
a
Atatük University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Erzurum, Turkey

Online Publication Date: 01 December 1988

To cite this Article Tan, Üner(1988)'The Relationship Between Nonverbal Intelligence, Familial Sinistrality and Geschwind Scores in
Right-Handed Female Subjects',International Journal of Neuroscience,43:3,177 — 182
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 Intern. J . Neuroscience. 1988. Vol. 43, pp. 177-182 0 1988 Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc.
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NONVERBAL

INTELLIGENCE, FAMILIAL SINISTRALITY AND
GESCHWIND SCORES IN RIGHT-HANDED FEMALE
SUBJECTS
UNER TAN
Atatiirk University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Erzururn, Turkey

(Received November 4 , 1988)

I proposed that there might be a strong relationship between the psychological and motor systems, and
argued that hand preference could be related to intelligence; higher 1Qs are to be expected in right-handers
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with familial sinistrality (FS) than without FS (Tan, in press). This hypothesis was tested in this work.
Cattle’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test was used to assess the ability of spatial reasoning in right-handed
females. Hand preference was assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Questionaire; a laterality score
(Geschwind score) was calculated for each subject. The sample from the Nursery Highschool had a
significantly lower mean IQ than that from the Medical Faculty. The incidence for the consistent right-
handers was significantly higher in the sample with lower mean IQ than that with higher mean IQ. The
incidence for the weak right-handers was significantly higher in the sample with higher mean IQ than that
with lower mean IQ. The incidence for familial sinistrality was significantly higher in the sample with higher
mean IQ than that with lower mean IQ. It was concluded that handedness, familial sinistrality, and
intelligence are interrelated traits; an attenuation in cerebral asymmetry as a result of an increase in the right
hemisphere’s mental abilities, reflecting itself in weak right-handedness in conjunction with FS, could be
a prerequisite for well-developed nonverbal intelligence.

Keywords: handedness, intelligence, ,familial sinisiraliiy. lateralization. brain

The right hemisphere’s eastern consciousness (Gardner, 1978) inspired in me years

ago the idea that there might be a strong relationship between psychological and
motor systems: the psychic activities could be expressed by the motor system, and the
motor activities could influence the psychological system by complex feedback circuits
within the brain. Under the light of this notion, I supposed that, for instance,
endogenous depression might be cured by improving the disturbed motricity. That is,
the decreased extensor activity usually observed in depression might be enhanced by
antidepressive therapy, and this effect would be essential in recovery from depression.
This hypothesis was confirmed experimentally (Tan & Henatsch, 1969a, b).
From the viewpoint of the psychomotor interrelationship, it is conceivable that
cognitive functions may be approached by studying the motor system. I recently
found that the incidence for weak right-handedness is higher in subjects with FS than
without FS, and argued that higher IQs are to be expected in right-handers with FS
than without FS (Tan, in press). This hypothesis was tested in the present work.
The spatial reasoning of the subjects was tested by Cattle’s Culture Fair Intelligence
Test in right-handed females. Hand preference was assessed by the Edinburgh
Handedness Questionaire (Oldfield, 1971). The results confirmed the working hypo-
thesis. The sample with a lower mean IQ had a higher incidence of consistent
I would like to thank the students of the medical faculty and Nursery Highschools at the Ataturk and
Hacettepe Universities. In particular, I am grateful to Doc. Dr. Saadet Ulker, lecturer of the Nursery
Highschool at the Hacettepe University, for her assistance in performing part of the intelligence tests.

177
 178 u. TAN
I Test 1, Series I

I Test 2 Classification I

Test 3. Matrices
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FIGURE 1 Sample items from Culture Fair Intelligence Test, Scale 2

right-handedness, and a lower incidence of FS. By contrast, the sample with a higher
mean IQ had a lower incidence of consistent right-handedness, and a higher incidence
of FS.

METHODS

Subjects
The subjects comprised right-handed, female students from the medical faculty ( N =
146) and the nursery highschool (N = 298). They ranged in age from 20 to 22 years,
and did not object to participate in the study, i.e., a volunteer bias was avoided. The
subjects originated from different cities, and were healthy, and devoid of neurological
or psychiatric signs, and symptoms.

Assessment of hand preference

To assess their hand preference, all subjects received a Turkish translation of the
Edinburgh Handedness Questionaire (Oldfield, 1971) modified by Geschwind and
Behan (1982). As described in the previous paper (Tan, in press), a laterality score was
calculated, which was called “Geschwind score.” A score of - 100 indicated that the
subject responded “always left,” and a Geschwind score (GS) of + 100 indicated
“always right” on all items.

Cognitive performance
Individual differences in mental abilities were established by the Cattle’s Culture Fair
 HANDEDNESS AND INTELLIGENCE 179

TABLE 1
Descriptive Data for IQs of Students of Medical and Nursery Schools
~~ ~

Subjects N Mean 1Q S.D. Median Range Int. Range

Medical I46 122.3 15.1 124 69 to 153 114 and 134

Nursery 298 100.6 18.1 100 49 to 148 86 and 119
~~ ~

lnt. range: interquartile range

Intelligence Test (Buros, 1938, 1961). This test is a paper-and-pencil test and available
in three levels: Scale 1, for ages 4 to 8 and mentally retarded adults; Scale 2, for ages
8 to 13 and average adults; and Scale 3, for grades 10 to 16 and superior adults. In
the present work, Scale 2 was used as a group test. The raw scores were converted into
IQs, according to the table for converting raw scores directly into intelligence quo-
tients (IQs).
Scale 2 consists of the following four tests, sample items from which are shown in
Figure 1. 1. Series: Select the item that completes the series. 2. Classification: Mark
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the one item in each row that does not belong with the others. 3. Matrices: Mark the
item that correctly completes the given matrix, or pattern. 4.Conditions: Insert a dot
in one of the alternative designs so as to meet the same conditions indicated in the
sample design.

RESULTS

IQs in the students of the medical and nursery schools

The IQs of the students belonging to the medical ( N = 146) and nursery ( N = 298)
schools were not distributed normally. The IQ distributions of the medical and
nursery students had a negative skewness of - 0.56 and - 0.40, respectively. The
statistical data are presented in Table 1. The Mann-Whitney U test indicated that the
mean IQ for the medical students was significantly higher than that for the students
of the nursery highschool ( z = 8.3, p < 0.001). The median, range, and interquartile
range for the IQs of the medical students were higher than those for the IQs of the
students of the nursery highschool.

The consistent, weak, and strong right-handers in the students of the medical and
nursery schools
The results are presented in Table 2. The incidence for the consistent right-handers
(GS = 100) was significantly lower in the students of the medical faculty than that
TABLE 2
Descriptive Data for the Incidences of the Consistent (GS = loo), Weak (GS = 35 to 60), and Strong
(GS = 65 to 95) Right-Handers in Medical and Nursery schools

Subjects (YO)

GSs Medical Nursery Diff. t d.f. P

100 14.4 26.8 12.4 2.93 442 < 0.005
35 to 60 20.5 12.1 8.4 2.34 442 < 0.25
65 to 95 64.4 56.7 7.7 1.55 442 NS
 I80 u. TAN
for the students of the nursery highschool. The incidence for the weak right-handers
(GS = 35 to 60) was significantly higher in the students of the medical faculty than
that for the students of the nursery highschool. There was no significant difference
between the incidences of the remaining strong right-handers (GS = 65 to 95) in the
samples of the medical and nursery schools.

Incidences ,for familial sinistrality in the medical and nursery students

The results concerning the incidences for familial sinistralities in the medical and
nursery schools are summarized in Table 3. Of nursery ( N = 298) and medical ( N =
146) students, 9.1 and 14.4% had sinistral fathers or mothers, respectively. The
difference was significant at the 10% significance level. The incidence for the medical
students having a sinistral father or mother as well as at least one sibling was also
higher than that for the nursery students with the same familial sinistrality, but the
difference was not statistically significant. There was no significant difference between
the medical and nursery students having a sinistral father as well as mother.
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The incidence for the medical students having only sinistral mothers (8.9Y0)was
higher than that for the nursery students with sinistral mothers (4.7%). The difference
was significant at the 10% level. There was no significant difference between these
samples having only sinistral fathers. The incidence for the medical students with a
sinistral father or mother or at least one sibling (34.9%) was significantly higher than
that for the nursery students with the same sinistrals (24.8%). There were more
medical students than nursery students having only one sinistral sibling, but the
difference was not statistically significant. Considering the subjects having sinistrality
in at least one of the parents, siblings or grandparents, the incidence for the medical
students was significantly higher than that for the nursery students.

DISCUSSION

The main idea in this work concerned psychomotor interrelationships. It was asked
whether hand preference was related to intelligence. To assess mental ability, the
Cattle’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test was used in the right-handed female subjects.
This test is a nonverbal intelligence test, and measures spatial reasoning, i.e., the
mental ability of the right cerebral hemisphere in right-handers. It is generally

TABLE 3
Incidences for Subjects with Familial Sinistrality in the Students of Medical and Nursery Schools

Students (YO)

Sinistrals Medical Nursery Diff. t d.f P

F or M 14.4 9.1 5.3 1.70 442 <0.10
ForM + S 2.7 I .3 1.4 I .04 442 NS
F f M 0.7 0.7 0.0 - - NS
Only M 8.9 4.7 4.3 1.74 442 <0.10
Only F 5.5 4.4 1.1 - - NS
F, M or S 34.9 24.8 10.I 2.22 442 < 0.05
Only S 20.5 15.4 5.1 1.34 442 NS
F, M, S, GP 41.8 28.2 13.6 2.81 442 < 0.005

F. Father; M, Mother; S: Sibling; GP: grandparent

 HANDEDNESS AND INTELLIGENCE 181

accepted that the left hemisphere is dominant in verbal tasks in right-handers. It is

then to be expected that the consistent right-handers could have lower scores than the
weak right-handers in the Cattle’s Intelligence Test. It is conceivable that the right
hemisphere might be better developed in the weak right-handers than in the consistent
right-handers. As a result, the left hemisphere might be less dominant in weak
right-handers than strong right-handers. This attenuation in cerebral asymmetry
could reflect itself in weak right-handedness, and high scores in spatial reasoning.
To test this working hypothesis, two samples having low (nursery students) and
high (medical students) mean scores were selected. The results indicated that the
incidence for the consistent right-handedness was significantly higher in the sample
with lower mean IQ than the sample with higher mean IQ. The incidence for the weak
right-handedness was significantly higher in the sample with higher mean IQ than the
sample with lower mean IQ. These results confirmed the working hypothesis that the
consistent right-handers (with less FS) would tend to have lower IQs than the weak
right-handers with a higher incidence of FS, provided that hand preference reflects the
degree of cerebral lateralization.
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It was recently found that right-handers with FS are less right-handed than those
without FS (Tan, in press). Because of the reasons presented above, weak right-
handers are expected to have higher IQs in spatial reasoning than consistent right-
handers. If so, the subjects with FS sould have higher IQs than those without FS; the
incidence for FS should be higher in the sample with higher IQs than the sample with
lower IQs. The results indeed showed that incidence for FS was significantly higher
in the sample with higher IQs than in those with lower IQs. It can thus, be concluded
that handedness, FS, and intelligence are interrelated traits; a less developed cerebral
asymmetry as a result of an increase in the right hemisphere’s mental abilities, could
be a prerequisite for a well-developed nonverbal (spatial) intelligence.
Annett (1973) reported that there are no differences in intelligence test scores
between patients with right-, and left-sided brain lesions. She suggested that both
hemispheres are equally capable of developing intellectual skills, verbal and nonver-
bal. It was also reported that males depend on the right hemisphere for performance
scale items, whereas females tend to use left-hemisphere processes for both verbal and
nonverbal tasks (Inglis & Lawson, 1982). Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that the
left hemisphere should also be well developed in addition to the right hemisphere, to
enhance the ability of spatial reasoning, resulting in weak right-handedness at the
same time. Sherman (1978) suggested that females attempt to solve all problems
verbally, i.e., with the aid of the left hemisphere in right-handers. This also emphasizes
the importance of the left-hemisphere in females. In subjects with low IQs, we can
then expect a less developed brain as a whole with strong lateralization.
The present work is not the first one looking for a relationship between handedness
and intellectual abilities. There are previous studies concerning this subject, but no
relationship between handedness and spatial or vocabulary intelligence tests could be
found (Annett, 1970, 1985; Annett & Turner, 1974; Gibson, 1973; Roberts, 1974).
With respect to F3, Briggs et al. (1976) compared the verbal and performance IQs on
the right-, mixed-, and left-handed students with or without FS. They found no
significant differences in the verbal or performance IQs related to handedness or FS.
It is clear that any cognitive functioning of the brain cannot solely be restricted to
development of the cerebral hemispheres. A well developed correspondence between
two cerebral hemispheres, in addition to their individual capacities, should be ex-
pected for the best cognitive output of the brain. According to Annett (198%
symbolic systems such as the construction and use of numbers in the application of
 182 u. TAN
verbal symbolic means of representing spatial relationships, as being the basis of
mathematical thinking, must depend on the cooperative activity of both cerebral
hemispheres. It is, thus, conceivable that subjects with high IQs are also provided with
well corresponding cerebral hemispheres.

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