=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1419/paper0085
|storemode=property
|title=Special Considerations Relating to Regulation of the Heart Rate in Left-Handed and Right-Handed Children Aged 7-8
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/paper0085.pdf
|volume=Vol-1419
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/eapcogsci/NikolaevaVD15
}}
==Special Considerations Relating to Regulation of the Heart Rate in Left-Handed and Right-Handed Children Aged 7-8==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/paper0085.pdf
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Special considerations relating to regulation of the heart rate in left-handed and
right-handed children aged 7-8
Elena Nikolaeva (klemtina@yandex.ru)
Department of aged psychology and family pedagogics, 80 Moskovsky prospect
Saint-Petersburg, 198302 Russian Federation
Eugeny Vergunov (vergounov@gmail.com)
Body Functional Reserves Laboratory, 4 Timakova
Novosibirsk, 630117, Russian Federation
Alexander Dobrin (doktor-alexander@mail.ru)
Department of clinical psychology , 28 kommunarov st.
Eletz, 399770, Russian Federation
Abstract unlikely in the extreme to suffer from cardiovascular
disease.
Heart rate variability of left-handed and right-handed children
in three different situations was compared. The first record In these harsh, inhospitable regions of Russia, oil
was made in quite situation; the second one was made when extraction takes place, and it involves the use of a rotational
child answered the questions about rewards in family and the working schedule in which workers from other, often
third one when she (he) answered the questions about faraway, regions come to work for two weeks and then
punishment. We have shown that heart rate variability of left- return home, where they also spend two weeks, thus
handed children in three situations did not change alternating their stays at home with work stints. It turns out
significantly, but regulation of heart rate variability of right-
handed children in emotional situations changed significantly.
that the number of left-handers who enter these jobs does
not differ from their number in the general European
Keywords: left-handedness, right-handedness, children, heart population. After seven years of working such shifts,
rate variability however, there is a sharp increase in the number of left-
handers. As it happens, right-handers do not simply quit
such jobs; they do so because of a steady increase in blood
The development of handedness is one of the most pressure.
intriguing problems of contemporary science. A preference These statistics allow us to assume that there is a
for one or another extremity has been documented on an causative connection between handedness and the process of
individual level for many mammals, and among humans it is adapting to complex conditions within a person’s
characteristic to divide the population unevenly into those surroundings. It is known that when there are new
who prefer the left hand and those who prefer the right environmental conditions to contend with, the right
(Nikolaeva, Leutin, 2006). hemisphere of the brain is activated (Nikolaeva, Leutin,
It turns out that among many animal species those that 2011). It is characteristic of the right hemisphere to process
have pronounced motor asymmetry exhibit greater cognitive information in a gestalt fashion, from which we can
capabilities (Bisazza et al., 1998; Cashmore et al., 2008). presume it is possible to evaluate any indicators of change
The likelihood of a high level of intelligence has been in the external environment and elaborate a new plan of
shown to vary among boys and girls under the age of eight action.
(Nikolaeva, 2010). Since intelligence is often considered to It has been shown that for right-handers central regulation
be an adaptive mechanism, it can be supposed that motor of the sympathetic nervous system is also a function of the
and sensory asymmetry are in some way connected with the right hemisphere (Craig, 2004). Consequently, the presence
primary mechanism a person uses to adapt to their of stress or frequent changes in adaptation strategies (when
surroundings. involved in rotating shift work) can overburden the
In the European part of Russia, the majority of the cardiovascular system and might lead to a breakdown in the
population favor their right hand when involved in various regulation process and a steady increase in blood pressure.
activities. By contrast, as a number of authors have Furthermore, it has been proven that for left-handers
revealed, natives of the Far North favor their left hand many functions of the brain are less specialized (McManus,
(Nikolaeva et al., 1995). It has been found that, in addition 2002; Pfannkuche et al., 2009; Meguerditchian et al., 2013).
to having a preference for their left hand, the Selkups, who This means that, for these people, during the process of
inhabit this part of the country, prefer to use their left side adaptation activation of the right hemisphere will not be
overall, in both the motor and sensory spheres. In other accompanied by a substantial increase in the burden
words, not only do they have a dominant left hand, but also imposed on the centers of sympathetic regulation, since they
a dominant left foot, eye and ear. It has also been discovered will be shared between the hemispheres. As a result,
that they have a low level of blood cholesterol and they are
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adaptation will not lead to a breakdown in the regulation of Department of Applied Physics of the University of Eastern
the cardiovascular system, since any changes will be within Finland, in Kuopio, Finland. Statistical analysis was
the limits of the adaptive resources. performed by using the IBM SPSS Statistics program
This begs the question as to how early differences in the (version 23).
primary regulation of the heart develop. Can we detect such Recording of the heart rates was conducted individually,
differences in elementary school children during the period and it consisted of three stages. Electrodes were placed on a
when they are adapting to the educational process? Is it child’s arm, in the area of the wrist, with the contact pad on
possible that the development of right-handed attributes the inside. At the point of the contacts, the skin was doused
during the formulation of handedness will increase intensive with water. The child sat in a comfortable chair. At each
changes in the heart rate when a person recalls emotional stage, 300 consecutive heart beats were recorded (from this
states? point on, heart beats are taken into account after the
processing of technical and biological artifacts on the
Materials and methods electrocardiogram recording, the time between R peaks on
In order to answer these questions, 145 schoolchildren the ECG is called the NN interval, and the standard
(they were an average of 7.2 ± 0.4 years old) were surveyed. deviation from their average value is noted as SDNN). Such
Here and elsewhere, the results are given in the [Mean] ± a prolonged ECG recording was chosen so that the entire
[SD]) format. The conditions for inclusion in the experiment assessment, beginning with the placing of the electrodes and
were the following: the absence of chronic disease, the ending with the recording of the answers, would take no
presence of a sine heart rate and written permission from the longer than ten minutes. The heart rates were recorded using
parents to take part in the research, along with an the Omega Medicine hardware and software system (the
explanation of what will happen at every step along the way. Dinamika Company, St. Petersburg, Russia).
Those children whose parents did not given permission to In Stage 1, the heart rate was recorded with the child at
participate were not included. rest. In Stage 2 (the valence of the emotional state = “+”),
Before the study began, it was determined which hand the heart rate was registered while the child was recalling
was dominant for each of the children by administering a situations of encouragement made possible by their parents.
series of tests: the Interlocked Fingers Test, the Napoleon In Stage 3 (the valence of the emotional state =“ – "), the
Pose Test (Nikolaeva, 2005), the Shoulder Test (with their heart rate was noted while the child was recalling situations
eyes closed, the child raises both hands in front of them, and involving punishment. The child’s answers were recorded
it is determined which hand is raised higher without any on the data sheet. The questions used in the conversation
visual monitoring), the Applause Test, the Object Grasping were taken from the E. Nikolaeva (2006) questionnaire.
Test, and the Jar Lid Unscrewing Test. In each of these It is extremely difficult to create conditions that generate
activities, it was determined which hand was the active one. an emotional response, especially in children. Talking about
Each test was performed three times. punishment or encouragement does not presuppose any sort
In addition, these tests were conducted once: Drawing a of investigation into the real situation inside a family; it is
Circle and Square with Closed Eyes and The Hand That simply a way of discovering the child’s perception of this
Holds the Pen and Pencil, as well as the Tapping Test situation. It has been proven that it is the perception of a
(Nikolaeva et. al., 2008). These tests were chosen because it situation that evokes an emotional response from a child
had earlier been shown that the performance of these (Bohanek et al., 2005). In fact, in this case a child recollects
activities was a reasonably stable indicator for children of a situation to the extent that his spare capacities allow him
this age. to – in other words, the child will unconsciously omit the
The results of all the tests were assigned a numerical most traumatic circumstances (Nikolaeva, 2006). Since
rating: left-handed performance was given a score of 0; there were no children in our sample group who had been
symmetrical performance (the child performed the activity physically punished, it can be supposed that the level of
first with one hand and then, when the test was repeated, emotional activation corresponded to what would be
with the other) a score of 1; and right-handed performance a considered moderate. The procedure used in this study made
score of 2. Children with an average value within the range it possible to evaluate a shift in control from a calm state of
of 0.0-0.7 were considered to be left-handed; those within awareness to an emotional state, as well as a changeover
the range of 1.3-2.0, right-handed; and the rest, mixed- from an emotional state of a positive valence to a negative
handed. one, or vice versa.
Power analysis (Faul, 2007) was carried out during the It can be assumed that the dynamics of the heart rate will
planning stage (a priori) and again during the calculation be minimally intense for left-handed children and will be at
and report stage (post hoc), using G*Power software, its peak for right-handers.
furnished to the authors for the purposes of this study by the
University of Düsseldorf. To process the heart rate Results and discussion
measurements (Tarvainen, 2014), the Kubios HRV program Figure 1 shows the trajectory of the conditions of the
was used, and it was made available for this research by the heart rate within a range from quiet state to “recollection of
Biosignal Analysis and Medical Imaging Group at the encouragement” to “recollection of punishment” (Sugihara,
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1990). It can be observed that the heart rate for all children intensive stress load during physical activity (an increase in
in dynamic tranquility (axis X) has the same span: the range the HR should not exceed 12 beats a minute in relation to
of values is from 55 to 105 bpm. quiet state).
Figure 2 presents the trajectory of the conditions of the
heart rate for those children in the plane of embedding (a
Poincaré plot) from “quiet state” to “recollection of
punishment” (i.e., from the beginning to the end of the
experiment) with a configuration of the dispersion ellipse
(Tarvainen, 2014). It can be noted that during these stages
of the experiment the point clouds of the heart-rate
conditions for a left-handed child are practically the same.
The dispersion ellipses confirm this: there is no statistical
difference in their configuration and location (p>>0.05).
Figure 1. Trajectories of heart rate states of a left-handed
child (grey color) and a right-handed child (black color) in a
space of states “quiet state” – “recall of rewards” – “recall
of punishments”. On the coordinate axes X, Y, Z there are
heart rates.
During recollection of encouragement within the family
(axis Y), the span of the heart rate for a left-handed child
does not change, but for a right-hander its lower limit Figure 2. Trajectory of heart rate states of a left-handed
changes from 65 to 105 bpm. During recollection of a child in a space of states “quiet state” – “recall of rewards”
situation involving punishment (axis Z), the upper limit of – “recall of punishments” with using Poincaré plot. On the
the heart-rate span changes for both groups: for left-handers, coordinate axes X, Y, Z there are heart rates. On the axis X-
from 55 to 95, and for right-handers, from 65 to 110 bpm. heart rates (bits per minute), on the axis Y – the same heart
Based on this data, it can be supposed that the dynamics of rates but with forward shift (one point). Axles of the ellipses
the heart rate for a right-handed child during a shift to an of dispersion are SD long period (on the line from lower left
emotional state are more pronounced that are those of a left- corner to upper right corner) and SD short-period
handed child. As a result, the three-dimensional point cloud (perpendicular to previous). Marks S mean a beginning of a
of heart-rate conditions for a right-handed child “shifts” trajectory, E – its end.
when compared to that of a left-hander.
At the beginning of the experiment, the average HR value The picture for a right-handed child is different (Fig 2):
was 72.5 ± 8.7 bpm (for the left-handed children) and 77.3 ± the point clouds of the heart-rate conditions at the beginning
10.0 bpm (for the right-handed children), the difference and at the end of the experiment are out of line with each
being at the level of p <<< 0.001, power = 1.000. At the end other. Although the configurations of the diversion ellipses
of the experiment, the average HR value was 72.8 ± 11.1 are similar, the centers of the ellipses have shifted (p <<<
bpm (for the left-handers) and 87.8 ± 9.4 bpm (for the right- 0.001; power = 1.000).
handers), the difference being at the level of p <<< 0.001, There are no any differences between stages of left-and
power = 1.000. Thus, it can be observed that the heart rate mixed- handed children. Power analysis confirms the
for a left-handed child at the beginning of the experiment differences of heart rate both between background and
(quiet state) and at the end of the experiment (after the first recalling situations of encouragement and background and
emotional state and at the end of the second, which had the recalling situations of punishment.
opposite valence) did not show a significant change We have received the differences just for right-handed
(p>>0.05). By comparison, the HR for a right-handed child children. It could be assumed that there is no enough a
in the same situation increased by 10 beats a minute (p <<< discriminant power of one parameter – handedness (but it
0.001; power = 1.000), which would correspond to an describes the most part of dispersion). Maybe we need some
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more parameters of lateral preferences, for example eye- their heart rate variability, in left-handers there is no link
ness, footedness, ear-ness. between emotional stress and autonomic manifestations. In
adulthood, this means that serious changes in the regulation
of emotional stress leads to myocardial infarction more
often with people who have all of the right-side attributes:
right-hand, right-foot, right-eye and right-ear dominance.
Further research might focus not only on an analysis of
how cardiological changes are linked to the characteristics
of handedness but of how they are related to other lateral
attributes as well.
An examination of these mechanisms allows us to
comprehend the evolutionary workings involved in the
phenomenon of lateral preferences in the sensory and motor
spheres and, at the same time, to understand how people
with such attributes are distributed in various climatic and
geographical conditions.
Acknowledgments
The work was supported by rant of RGNF 14-06-00195
Figure 3. Trajectory of heart rate states of a right-handed References
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