Get a grip: variation in human hand grip strength and implications for human evolution

Bardo, A., Kivell, T.L., Town, K., Ballieux, H., Donati, G., Stamate, C., Edginton, T. and Forrester, G.S. 2021. Get a grip: variation in human hand grip strength and implications for human evolution. Symmetry. 13 (7) 1142. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13071142

TitleGet a grip: variation in human hand grip strength and implications for human evolution
TypeJournal article
AuthorsBardo, A., Kivell, T.L., Town, K., Ballieux, H., Donati, G., Stamate, C., Edginton, T. and Forrester, G.S.
Abstract

Although hand grip strength is critical to the daily lives of humans and our arboreal great ape relatives, the human hand has changed in form and function throughout our evolution due to ter-restrial bipedalism, tool use, and directional asymmetry (DA) such as handedness. Here we in-vestigate how hand form and function interact in modern humans to gain insight into our evolu-tionary past. We measured grip strength in a heterogeneous, cross-sectional sample of human participants (n=662, 17 to 83 years old), to test the potential effects of age, sex, asymmetry (hand dominance and handedness), hand shape, occupation, and practice of sports and musical instru-ments that involve the hand(s). We found a significant effect of sex and hand dominance on grip strength, but not of handedness, while hand shape and age had a greater influence on female grip strength. Females were significantly weaker with age, but grip strength in females with large hands was less affected than those with long hands. Frequent engagement in hand sports signifi-cantly increased grip strength in the non-dominant hand in both sexes, while only males showed a significant effect of occupation, indicating different patterns of hand dominance asymmetries and hand function. These results improve our understanding of the link between form and func-tion in both hands and offer insight into the evolution of human laterality and dexterity.

Keywordspower grip strength
directional asymmetry
hand dominance
hand shape
manual activities
human evolution
functional morphology
Article number1142
JournalSymmetry
Journal citation13 (7)
ISSN2073-8994
Year2021
PublisherMDPI
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13071142
Publication dates
Published online26 Jun 2021

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