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.
Each hemisphere is in charge of the opposite side of the body, so your right brain controls your left hand. The right hemisphere also takes in sensory input from your left side and vice versa.
The left side of the brain is concerned with language, number skills, reasoning, scientific skills, spoken language, and right-hand control.
“When we're left-handed, our right brains are usually dominant, and that's where creativity and intuition are centered. So it's often easier for us to be creative than logical.
The left brain handles reading, writing, and calculations. Some call it the logical side of the brain. The right brain is more visual and deals in images more than words.
One hemisphere of the brain is activated when we use our dominant hand, but both are activated when we use the other. If creativity is located in your non-dominant hemisphere, for example, using your non-dominant hand may stimulate those brain cells. Cooperation between hemispheres is good.
What are "left-brained" people like? They are described as logical, analytical, and orderly. The theory suggests that people who are left-brain dominant do well in careers that involve linear thinking, math, and verbal information, such as an accountant, scientist, or computer programmer.
A straightforward genetic link hasn't been proven, and it is possible for two right-handed parents to have a left-handed child. Theories include: Genes – perhaps genetic factors predispose a child to favour the right hand. A single gene might be passed from parents to children to influence which hand a child favours.
But in another task that looked at biases in what we pay attention to, we found no differences in the brain-processing patterns for right-handers and left-handers. This result suggests that while there are relationships between handedness and some of the brain's specialisations, there aren't for others.
But left-handers depend lesser on the left side of the brain. Hence, they can recover their language abilities faster after a stroke. Left-handers have an advantage in some sports. They are usually good at sports when in a one-on-one face-off.
Half the Brain Encodes Both Arm Movements
The right side of the brain is understood to control the left side of the body, and vice versa. Recent evidence , however, supports a connection between the same side of the brain and body during limb movement.
Cerebellum. The cerebellum is located at the back of the brain beneath the occipital lobes. It is separated from the cerebrum by the tentorium (fold of dura). The cerebellum fine tunes motor activity or movement, e.g. the fine movements of fingers as they perform surgery or paint a picture.
The neural system for emotions linked to approaching and engaging with the world – like happiness, pride and anger – lives in the left side of the brain, while emotions associated with avoidance – like disgust and fear – are housed in the right.
No differences in mean IQ scores were found between right-handers and non-right-handers as well as between right-handers and mixed-handers. No sex differences were found. Overall, the intelligence differences between handedness groups in the general population are negligible.
October 6, 2013. The left and right hemispheres of Albert Einstein's brain were unusually well connected to each other and this may have contributed to his brilliance, according to a new study [1], the first to detail Einstein's corpus callosum.
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.
Hand preference probably arises as part of the developmental process that differentiates the right and left sides of the body (called right-left asymmetry). More specifically, handedness appears to be related to differences between the right and left halves (hemispheres ) of the brain.
If both mother and father were right-handed, the chance of their offspring being left-handed was only 7 percent. However, if one parent was left-handed, the chance of the offspring being left-handed, too, was 21.4 percent, more than three times as much as for two right-handed parents.
Right-brainers can be disorganised, unpredictable and more often than not, very good with people. They are spontaneous, creative and more emotional than left-brainers, often pondering and acting on their feelings. They are intuitive, good at problem solving and more comfortable with the unknown.
Those who are right-brained are supposed to be intuitive and creative free thinkers. They are "qualitative," big-picture thinkers who experience the world in terms that are descriptive or subjective. For example, "The skies are gray and menacing; I wonder if it's going to rain?"
They found no difference in IQ levels among left- and right-handed people, but left-handers appeared to be more likely to have an intellectual disability. However, this study indicated that people who were intellectually gifted or following typical development were also just as likely to be left-handed.
Rose goes on to explain that “the non-dominant hand is actually linked to the non-dominant hemisphere in your brain – the one that isn't exercised as often… [so] when you use the non-dominant hand, both hemispheres are activated, which may result in thinking differently and becoming more creative.”
“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.