This is my only post for August, 2016 because I have been busy promoting my book and getting ready for the start of the fall semester at Penn State. Below is a photo taken at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Denver, CO held at the beginning of this month. My publisher, Elsevier, arranged an author’s meet and greet. Several authors of recently-published books attended to talk with colleagues about their respective books. I had some interesting conversations with left-handers during this session. I find that the left-handers I meet fall into two groups. One group is very curious and asks questions aimed at either confirming or refuting their pet theories about left-handedness. The second group takes their left-handedness for granted; individuals in this group are surprised that anyone is interested in the topic because they themselves rarely think about it. I met several members of this second group of left-handers at APA this year.
I want to get back to the task at hand and answer the fifth question in my series Six Questions Left-handers Ask. Here are the questions again and this post answers #5.
- I write with my left hand but do other things with my right hand. Is that normal?
- Everyone in my family is right-handed but me. Why? I thought handedness is genetic.
- Is it true that left-handers don’t live as long as right-handers?
- Are left-handers smarter and more creative than right-handers?
- If I try to switch writing from my left to my right hand, will I mess up my brain?
- Are left-handers better at sports than right-handers?
The practice of forcing left-handers to become right-handers has a long history. Forced conversion remains an ongoing practice in some parts of the world but I will concentrate on the history of conversion practices in North America and Great Britain. The 19th century Italian physician, Cesare Lombroso, was influential in connecting left-handedness to insanity and criminality. His writings lent scientific credibility to the idea that left-handedness is an undesirable trait. Left-handers should be converted to right-handers to avoid developing the negative traits that lead to socially unacceptable behaviors. Early 20th century British, Canadian and American educators adopted Lombroso’s ideas and promoted forced rightward conversions in left-handed children. These conversion attempts were often conducted with punitive fervor. Restraining the left hand so it could not be used or striking the left hand when the child tried to use it were common conversion techniques.
In the 1920’s a series of publications presented data claiming that 50% of stutters were left-handers who had undergone rightward conversion. There were further reports that the stuttering of converted left-handers improved when individuals were returned to their natural left-handed behaviors. The speech center in the brain is located in the left hemisphere for most persons. One researcher, Samuel Orton, argued that switching handedness interfered with the establishment of language functions in one hemisphere and resulted in the development of speech and language disturbances. These findings connected the rightward conversion of left-handedness to a ‘messed up’ brain that caused speech problems. As a consequence there was a relaxation and widespread elimination of the educational practice of forced rightward conversion of left-handedness over the following decades of the 20th century in North America and Great Britain.
Researchers continue to investigate the possibility that handwriting conversion causes changes in the brain. Studies conducted in the 21st century use neural imaging techniques to record brain activity while individuals write. Right and left hand movements are controlled by the movement control centers of the opposite hemisphere. Movement centers in the left hemisphere control right-hand motions while movement centers in the right hemisphere control left-hand motions. Natural right- and left-handers show primarily opposite hemisphere activity when they write. Converted left-handers, who now write with the right hand, display activity in both hemispheres when writing. A study published in 2010 found that movement control centers in the brains of converted left-handers show structural differences when compared to these centers in the brains of natural right- and left-handers. It seems that brain development in the movement control areas can be affected by an early experience of writing hand conversion. However, the researchers did not find a relationship between these brain differences and speech, language or other learning difficulties among converted left-handers. In fact, connections between left-handedness, handwriting conversion, criminality, insanity and disabilities of language or speech find little support in the contemporary research literature.