Heterolaterality and dominant ear in Asturians

Abstract

This work implies the analysis of the possible existence of heterolaterality for auditory sensitivity and so the presence of a guiding or dominant ear as certain observations have suggested. The analysis of the frequencies of dextrotic, levotic or ambiotic individuals in a sample representing the general Asturian population of both sexes and ages between, mostly, 14 to 23 years reveals that the dextrotic individuals almost make up two thirds of the population (72.47%) whereas the ambiotics represent a very small percentage of the whole (3.17%). In this way, it can be pointed out that no sexual differences were detected for this somatophysiological characteristic, that find confirmation in tests of statistical significance.

It seems that lef-handed people have a behaviour similar to that of the general population. It therefore appears that lef-handedness is not associated to the presence of a dominant lef-ear people. The presence of a guiding ear clearly represented by the right ear, finds a satisfactory explanation in the model put forward by KIMURA (1961) which marks the preponderance of the contralateral route over the ipsolateral one in the arrival of the acoustic information of both ears to the left hemisphere, in where it is processed, as the adaptative advantage to language. The apparent hearing similarity of left and right-handed people seems to reveal the non existence of differences despite the supposed “dominance” of the right hemisphere in the later, which should therefore be considered only for determined functions.