Determination of hand, foot, eye, ear and jaw lateralizations of university students in physical sciences and social sciences departments

In the presented research, by examining side preferences, finger ratios and hair whorl directions of male and female students studying at universities in physical sciences and social sciences departments, the correlation between each other was analyzed. The aim of this study is to determine cerebral dominance based on the lateralization findings of the male and female students from different departments. 164 people at 19-29 age range studying at universities in physical sciences and social sciences departments were included in the study. Lateralization data of the participants were determined by appropriate inventories. Their hair whorl directions were identified clockwise and finger ratios were determined by caliper. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square and Kruskal Wallis tests were conducted in statistical analysis. Statistical significance level was approved as p<0,05. According to study findings, when persons' hand preference alteration pressure contrasted with regard to hand preference (chi-square=11.852, p=0.003), foot preference contrasted with regard to hand preference (chi-square=69.648, p<0.001), right and left hand finger ratios contrasted with regard to gender (chi-square=8.022, p=0.005 and chi-square=9.876, p=0.002) statistically significant difference was detected. The study showed that the pressure on using non-dominant hand affects hand preference, hand and foot preferences lateralize in the same direction and finger ratios are linked to gender. Furthermore, the percentage of left handed and ambidextrous individuals studying at social sciences departments is higher than students of the physical sciences departments. Left handedness in males higher than females. In the end, it was seen that participants generally prefer right direction and have left cerebral hemispheric dominance.