Hands, arms, and minds: interactions between posture and thought.

Based on earlier reports of inconsistent postural preferences in psychiatric populations, we assessed arm folding (AF) and hand clasping (HC) postures in 361 healthy right-handers with different degrees of magical ideation (MI). Subjects generally preferred the congruent combination of a left-arm-top (AF) and a left-thumb-top position (HC). Incongruent subjects, in particular those with a right-arm-top/left-thumb-top position, scored higher on MI than did congruent subjects. Our main finding was thus an association between a style of thinking (MI) and lateral preferences for limb postures, inconsistent across distal (primarily contralaterally innervated) and more proximal (more bilaterally innervated) parts of the body. This association is interpreted in the frame of lesser hemispheric asymmetries in subjects bordering to schizotypal personalities.