Hand Preferences for Unimanual and Bimanual Coordinated Actions in Olive Baboons (Papio anubis): Consistency Over Time and Across Populations

The reliability of handedness data in nonhuman primates and variations of sample size across studies are critical issues for exploring their potential continuity with humans concerning hemispheric specialization. In this study, we investigated the consistency of handedness for unimanual and bimanual tasks in olive baboons (Papio anubis). For both tasks, we found a consistency of hand preferences over time among subjects retested 5 years later and a consistency of population-level handedness between 2 independent populations. Altogether, when combining the 2 samples, bimanual (N = 260) but not unimanual task (N = 220) elicited right-handedness predominance. These findings demonstrate the reliability and robustness of predominance of right-handedness in olive baboons for bimanual coordinated behaviors.