Lefties multitask better than righties If you're quicker at video games, sporting events, or other activities that require simultaneous responses, you're probably left handed! Studies are finding that the major connection between the left and right brain is stronger in left-handers.
Left-handed people are said to be good at complex reasoning, resulting in a high number of lefty Noble Prize winners, writers, artists, musicians, architects and mathematicians. According to research published in the American Journal of Psychology, lefties appear to be better at divergent thinking.
Genetic Roots
But it wasn't until 2019 that they identified differences in parts of the DNA of left- and right-handers. The study, which also analyzed brain scans of 9,000 British subjects, found that in lefties, the parts of the right and left sides of the brain that process language work in better tandem.
But other research suggests that there are probably dozens of genes that play a role in determining whether we end up writing with our left hand or our right. On top of that, other studies have linked factors such as oestrogen levels and birth position to varying levels of left- and right-handedness.
Overall, individuals with ADHD had a 27.3 percent chance of being either left-handed or mixed-handed compared to 18.1 percent in the general population. So the results suggest that the effects are smaller than for the autism spectrum, but generally go in the same direction.
The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjectively preferred, is called the non-dominant hand. In a study from 1975 on 7,688 children in US grades 1-6, left handers comprised 9.6% of the sample, with 10.5% of male children and 8.7% of female children being left-handed.
Babe Ruth. The Babe is probably the most famous left-handed slugger of all-time.
Special or not, lefties are born, not made: Genetics are at least partially responsible for handedness. Up until last year, it was assumed that hand preference comes from asymmetrical genes in the brain—two hands, two brain hemispheres, one is dominant.
“Most left-handers seem to have similar language processing to right-handers,” Grimshaw says. For other one-sided brain functions, such as attention, emotion, music, and face perception, she says, there are less data. “But for the most part, left-handers do not differ obviously from right-handers.
According to IFL Science, those who have a left-hand preference "on average, [have] a more developed right-brain hemisphere", which helps when it comes to processing and understanding spatial awareness and mental representations of objects.
Left-handedness occurs in about 8% of the human population. It runs in families and an adoption study suggests a genetic rather than an environmental origin; however, monozygotic twins show substantial discordance.
If two parents are right-handed, their offspring has a 10% chance of being left-handed. However, if one or both parents are left-handed, the chance of their child being left-handed becomes higher at 18 to 22% and 27%, respectively.
Because we write from left to right, right handers pull the pencil, writing away from their body while left handers have to push the pencil, writing towards their body. Teaching left handed people to write the same way as right handed people can make handwriting slow, uncomfortable and messy.
But handedness has its roots in the brain—right-handed people have left-hemisphere-dominant brains and vice versa—and the lefties who claim Einstein weren't all that far off. While he was certainly right-handed, autopsies suggest his brain didn't reflect the typical left-side dominance in language and speech areas.
Eleven percent of the population is born left-handed, and if they seem different, it's because they are! Learn six tips for raising a left-handed child.
Research suggests that between ten and twelve percent of the world's population is left-handed. Even though being left-handed might mean struggling with right-handed scissors from time-to-time, there are plenty of reasons being a lefty is pretty cool!
McManus which found that the Netherlands has one of the world's highest prevalences of left-handedness at 13.23 percent. The United States isn't far behind with a rate of 13.1 percent while neighboring Canada has 12.8 percent. Elsewhere, rates of left-handedness are far lower and China is a good example.
If both parents are right-handed, the chance that 2 of 5 children are left-handed is 7%. When there's only two children, the chance is 1%. With 10 children it's almost 20%.
This is often associated with enhanced intuition, emotion, imagination and creativity. Left-handed people are also believed to be better at thinking outside the box and problem-solving, which could be a big advantage as your child approaches school age.
Wright and Hardie (2012) found that left-handers reported higher levels of state anxiety but there was no difference in trait anxiety. They also demonstrated that when Trait Anxiety was controlled for, left-handers still showed a higher level of state anxiety compared to right-handers.
Left-handers – we know from our own surveys that 74% of left-handers eat with a knife and fork in the “right-handed” way – with the fork in their left hand and feeding themselves with the left hand.
Conclusion: Our confidence intervals at a 95% confidence level show that the average IQ for a left handed person is between 117.73 and 127.19 and for a right handed person it is between 109.9 and 123.5.