THE CORRELATION BETWEEN MANUAL ASYMMETRY AND THE QUALITY OF BALL ROUTINE IN YOUNG GYMNASTS

Aim. The article deals with establishing the correlation between lateral manual preference, manual technical asymmetry and the results of ball routine in young gymnasts. Materials and methods. Twenty gymnasts aged 7–8 years underwent tests to establish asymmetry through determining lateral manual preferences and assessing a ball routine performance. Non-parametric criteria and correlation analysis were used for data processing. Results. At the preparatory stage and at the stage of technique enhancement, the average level of the apparatus possession in the subgroups of gymnasts with different lateral manual preferences has statistically significant differences when performing technical elements with dominant and non-dominant hand (p ≤ 0.05). The correlation between lateral manual preferences and a ball routine performance in gymnasts was not revealed at the preparatory stage (ρ = –0.03) and was not significant at the stage of technique enhancement (ρ = 0.30). The coefficient of manual technical asymmetry has a significant correlation with the total amount of penalties for a ball routine technique at the preparatory stage (p < 0.05) and a highly significant correlation at the stage of technique enhancement (p < 0.01). Conclusion. Intergroup and individual differences in terms of symmetry/asymmetry should be taken into account for learning technical elements with the apparatus in young gymnasts.

Association Between the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met Polymorphism and Manual Performance Asymmetries

Within the cognitive domain, neuroscience and cognitive psychology researchers have investigated the relationship between handedness and cognitive skills. However, there have been few studies of the three-way association between manual asymmetry, its genetic components, and cognition even though this line of research could further an understanding of asymmetry. One enzyme involved in cognitive functions related to the dopaminergic system and to the prefrontal cortex is the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), and it has a trimodal activity distribution in the human population due to its functional polymorphism known as Val158Met. This study investigated whether this COMT polymorphism is associated with asymmetries in the performance of a manual dexterity task. Forty-two right-handed undergraduate students ( Mage = 25.12, SD = 5.84; 15 women, 27 men) performed two trials each of place and remove conditions of the Grooved Pegboard Test with each hand (right and left), counterbalancing the order of the initial or starting hand. We calculated the mean time to perform the task for both hands on both trials and found, as hypothesized, that the Met/Met group gave a more asymmetrical performance than the Val/Met group under the place condition because dopamine levels reduced flexible behavior for the Val/Met group. We suspect that the place condition requires greater interhemispheric connectivity, as it requires a greater cognitive flexibility, and highly asymmetrical individuals are said to be less flexible. The findings of this study suggest a significant association between the COMT polymorphism and manual asymmetry in healthy populations.