Are you a Lefty?

Human beings are a complex species. When we are born, we have no knowledge or motor skills. There are many steps that we learn along the way. For example, we learn to crawl, walk, talk and pick up objects. This is initially done on our own [with some parental guidance]. What I mean by ‘on our own’ is that these are actions the body does not do for us. One action our bodies are wired to do is blink. We do not need to learn how to blink; it comes naturally. Let us go back to the handling of objects.

Are you a lefty? According to a Huffington Post article by Katie Kens, only about 10% of the worlds population is left-handed. That is a great deal of right-handed individuals out there! Some think all your genes come from your parents. Well I am not too sure about that on this topic. Both my parents are left-handed but all three of their children turned out to have a right-hand dominance. So where does the trait of being left-handed come from? Our right side of the brain dominates the mathematical logistics and the left works with “spatial abilities”.

“The right side of the brain controls muscles on the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls muscles on the right side of the body. Also, in general, sensory information from the left side of the body crosses over to the right side of the brain and information from the right side of the body crosses over to the left side of the brain. Therefore, damage to one side of the brain will affect the opposite side of the body.”

-Eric H. Chudler. All Rights Reserved.

The concept of “cross over” could state that those who are more skilled in mathematics are our left-handed people and more creative people are right-handers. In other words, depending on which hemisphere of your brain is stronger determines your dominant hand. The majority of the population be right-handed due to language. Humans have always spoken a certain language since time began. This may indicate that people started to use their right-hand because it was natural for them to use that hand if the left side, of their brain, was stronger.

According to Jason Goldman of BBC, “there has never been any report of human population in which left-handed individuals predominate”. This does not mean right-handers will rule the world, but it does entail that the lefties may stay the minority for a while. All in all, there is not specific research geared towards the neuroscience on which hand we are more comfortable with. In addition, we may never understand why such a small percentage of the population has a left-hand dominance. What do you guys think?

Left-Handed Celebs…

Henry Ford / David Rockefeller / Phil Collins / Jimi Hendrix / Michelangelo / Tim Allen / Robert DeNiro / Whoopie Goldberg / Lisa Kudrow / Nicole Kidman / Keanu Reeves / Mickey Rourke / Bruce Willis / Phil Esposito / Oscar de la Hoya /  Steve Carlton / Barry Bonds / Reggie Jackson

Hey left-handers… you’re amongst some great people! Check out the whole list for yourself.

P.S. – August 13th is International Left Handers Day 🙂

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/left-handed-facts-lefties_n_2005864.html

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/split.html

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141215-why-are-most-of-us-right-handed

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/fun-facts-about-left-handers/ss-BBlmaFR#image=4

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

3 thoughts on “Are you a Lefty?

  1. Patrick Hryckiewicz

    I too am a lefty and I actually just did a post about this. What a coincidence we both had the same idea! In my article, I talked about a theory which believes that there are C and D genes. According to the article, if people have the D gene, there is a 100% chance they are right-handed, and if people have the C gene, there is a 50% chance they’ll be a lefty or a 50% chance they’ll be a righty. This is just a theory, so it could be completely wrong. This website could be worth checking out. The “cross over” concept actually makes sense for me since I’m not a creative person and I’m not half bad at math.

  2. Emily Miles Whiteman

    The differences** Just a little spell check there. Also, ignore the repeated “article”, I’m still trying to get the hang of these live links.

  3. Emily Miles Whiteman

    I found this article to be very interesting mostly because I am a lefty myself. Both my parents are right-handed, so I always wondered how I developed the left-hand trait. Ironically, I am horribly uncreative, but I am also not so skilled in mathematics. So according to your left brain right brain theory, I really should have no hands at all I suppose. I never really thought there was a significant difference between left-handers and right-handers, but if you check out this article article, it points out the factual differences between the two hands, but also the rumored differences. It’s differences are surprising!

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