Foot agility and social anxiety in older children (9-15 years).

According to Paul MacLean's phylogenetic model of the brain, the anterior cingulate should be associated with interpersonal emotional bonding. If this assumption is correct, then foot agility (primarily affected by the dorsal medical surface of the cerebrum) should be associated with attenuated bonding and enhanced social anxiety. It would not be associated with finger agility, finger agnosia, or toe agnosia because their integrity involves more distal portions of the cortex. Strong age-dependent and linear increases in agility but not agnosia were shown for the fingers and the feet for normal children (28 girls, 28 boys) between 9 and 15 years of age. As predicted, a correlation of -0.50, not confounded by age or other measures, was noted between foot agility and social anxiety, but was statistically significant for the girls, not for the boys.