Citation

Natale V, Lehnkering H, Siegmund R. Physiol. Behav. 2010; 100(4): 322-326.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.03.006

PMID

20233597

Abstract

Previous research studies indicate that motor activity in the first half of nocturnal sleep is lateralized to the non dominant-hand. It was suggested that such phenomenon may be due to more pronounced homeostatic deactivation of the dominant hemisphere (referring to the hypothesis of the use-dependent recovery function of sleep). If this were the case we should expect a reversed pattern of motor activity asymmetries between right- and left-handed subjects. We tested this hypothesis in an ecological study assessing circadian motor activity in seventeen right- and seventeen left-handed subjects. All subjects wore actigraphs on both left and right wrist for at least twelve consecutive days. In line with previous studies, right-handed subjects showed higher motor activity in the left versus right hand in late evening. We did not however find a reverse pattern of results in left-handed participants. On the whole the results do not seem to support the use-dependent recovery hypothesis, and are suggestive of a different circadian phase relationship between the two hemispheres regardless of handedness.

Language: en