The incidence of scarring on the dorsum of the hand

When undertaking image comparison of the hand between accused and perpetrator, it is not unusual for scars to be identified on the back of the hand. To investigate the occurrence of scarring in a discreet sample, a database of 238 individuals was examined, and the dorsum of the right and left hands was gridded for each individual. The position, size and type of scar were recorded within each grid. It was found that, in general, males exhibited a higher incidence of scarring than females. However, males were more likely to show scarring on their left hand whereas females were more likely to exhibit scarring on their right hand. Contrary to the literature, scarring was not most prevalent along the borders of the hand but occurred more frequently in association with the index and middle finger corridor regions. Surgical scars were rare as were large scars whereas linear scars smaller than 6 mm were the most frequently identified. Close to half of the sample did not exhibit scarring on one hand. The importance of understanding the pattern of scarring on the back of the hand is discussed in the light of forensic image comparison analysis

Print-Tuning Lateralization and Handedness:An Event-Related Potential Study in Dyslexic Higher Education Students

Despite their ample reading experience, higher education students with dyslexia still show deficits in reading and reading-related skills. Lateralized print tuning, the early sensitivity to print of the left parietal cortex signalled by the N1 event-related potential (ERP) component, differs between beginning dyslexic readers and controls. For adults, the findings are mixed. The present study aims to investigate whether print tuning, as indexed by the N1 component, differs between 24 students with dyslexia and 15 non-dyslexic controls. Because handedness has been linked to lateralization, first, a separate analysis was conducted including only right-handed participants (n=12 in both groups), like in most previous studies. ERPs were measured during a judgement task, requiring visual, phonological, or semantic judgments. In both groups, the N1 was earlier and stronger in the left than in the right hemisphere. However, when only strongly right-handed participants were evaluated, the N1 was less left-lateralized for participants with dyslexia as compared with controls. Participants with dyslexia had longer reaction times during the ERP experiment and performed worse on many reading (-related) tasks. These findings suggest that abnormal print tuning can still be found among higher education students with dyslexia and that handedness should be regarded in the study of print tuning. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Is Homosexuality a Paraphilia? The Evidence For and Against

Whether homosexuality should be described as one among many paraphilic sexual interests or an altogether different dimension of sexual interest has long been discussed in terms of its political and social implications. The present article examined the question instead by comparing the major correlates and other features of homosexuality and of the paraphilias, including prevalence, sex ratio, onset and course, fraternal birth order, physical height, handedness, IQ and cognitive neuropsychological profile, and neuroanatomy. Although those literatures remain underdeveloped, the existing findings thus far suggest that homosexuality has a pattern of correlates largely, but not entirely, distinct from that identified among the paraphilias. At least, if homosexuality were deemed a paraphilia, it would be relatively unique among them, taxonometrically speaking

A Review on Research and Evaluation Methods for Investigating Self-Transcendence

Self-transcendence has been characterized as a decrease in self-saliency (ego disillusionment) and increased connection, and has been growing in research interest in the past decade. Several measures have been developed and published with some degree of psychometric validity and reliability. However, to date, there has been no review systematically describing, contrasting, and evaluating the different methodological approaches toward measuring self-transcendence including questionnaires, neurological and physiological measures, and qualitative methods. To address this gap, we conducted a review to describe existing methods of measuring self-transcendence, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these methods, and discuss research avenues to advance assessment of self-transcendence, including recommendations for suitability of methods given research contexts

Handedness and Sex, Race, and Age

The incidence of right and left handedness as measured by behavioral test­ing in 7688 school children in grades 1 through 6 was examined for rela­tionships to sex, race and age. Although statistically significant relationships were found for sex and race, the relationships are so slight that we conclude that sex and race have little meaningful relationship to the incidence of handedness