The present study was designed to assess the sex and task differences concerning the relative participation of the left and right hemispheres in the somatosensory function.
Three tasks-a passive-touch task, an active-touch task, and a tactile-thought task-were given to 32 normal, right-handed 10 years old children.
The results showed a right hand superiority in both sexes in the passive-touch task condition. In the active-touch task, female children showed a right-hand superiority, while male children did not show any difference between hands. Both sexes showed a clear left-hand superiority, and the male's performance was better than the female's in the tactile-thought task.
These results suggest that sex differences exist among 10 years old children in somatosensory functioning. Laterality differences vary, however, depending upon the task difference, that is, the type difference of used neural pathways.