Posted on 11/22/2019 4:44:45 AM PST by SunkenCiv
While there's no righty or lefty gene, DNA does seem to play a role in handedness. In a recent study published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology, researchers at the University of Oxford looked at the DNA of about 400,000 people in the U.K. and found that four regions of the genome are generally associated with left-handedness. Three out of these four regions were involved in brain development and structure. Some researchers hope that studying the biological differences between lefties and righties could shed light on how the brain develops specializations in its right and left hemispheres...
Righties have dominated for as far back in the archaeological record as researchers can see, about 500,000 years, Uomini said. Neanderthals, our now-extinct human cousins, were also strongly right-handed.
That makes humans pretty strange among animals. Several nonhuman species, such as the other great apes, are individually handed, but the split between righties and lefties is typically closer to 50-50.
What caused our extreme bias toward right-handedness to evolve and persist? From an evolutionary perspective, if right-handedness evolved because it had some kind of advantage, then you might expect left-handers to disappear completely, Uomini told Live Science. She added that there are some disadvantages to being left-handed, such as higher frequencies of work accidents. Researchers also linked left-handedness to learning disabilities, in a study published in 2013 in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
But there's a leading theory to explain why left-handers have maintained a constant minority: the fighting hypothesis.
"The idea is that in hand-to-hand combat, or in combat with weapons, there is an evolutionary advantage to being a minority left-hander," Uomini said. "If you're left-handed, you have a surprise advantage because most people are used to fighting against right-handers."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
“This sounds like a crock to me — obviously the same disadvantage a righty might experience confronted by a lefty applies reflexively, a lefty would have the analogous disadvantage confronted by a righty. “
No. Lefties (and righties) are used to fighting other righties.
A rhighty fighting a righty is the norm.
A rhighty fighting a lefty would be unusual only for the righty.
A lefty fighting a lefty would be very rare.
I was a lefty until I was old enough to go to school, and then, teachers put rubber bands binding my left thumb and index finger and a mitten on my left hand until I was a righty.
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I find it interesting that one, to be “sinister”, is to be left-handed; two, that “sheep to the right, goats to the left”; three, within the Pagan community, there is a “right hand/left hand path, i.e., light vs dark”; four, I was born a leftie, like my late mom, and was switched by her, which, in turn, messed up my balance, and explains why all my biological maladies showed on my left side!
I read once that the corpus callosum, the fibrous nerve bundle that separates the two brain hemisphere - was more considerably larger in left-handed people. The increased interplay between the two sides of the brain gives lefties an advantage because we have easier access to the right-brained creativity side.
I think there are more of us that are handedness confused than they know. They need to study us.
Me too!
I can write with either hand although each looks different so I have make a conscious decision to stick with one for banking/legal purposes.
I catch with my left, eat with my left, and punch/slap with my left but throw with my right. I confuse myself with a tennis racket and often throw the racket from hand to hand depending on what my opponent does. Ditto with a paintbrush. I can only knit left handed.
My doctor told me this is why I’m clumsy. I have to think too much!
Why Are People Left- (or Right-) Handed?
Cause!
A lefty fighting a righty is no more common than a righty fighting a lefty, which is what I said up there.
Ambidextrous people can switch hands without missing a beat.
Ew, I could have lived without the butt wiping info. :^)
Playing a lot of pickup basketball in my day it constantly amazed me how few opponents recognized & adjusted to the fact that I was left-handed. On defense they’d push me toward my dominant hand (to my left) because that is what do — with a righty. When they were on offense and I was going up to block their jump shot, I had a bit more of a height advantage because my left hand is opposite their shooting hand.
Also, I’m one of those lefties that can ‘switch-off’ so if I did get a guy who recognized and adjusted, I made sure to put up a right-handed jump shot just to freak him out.
Correct, but it is rare occurance for the righty.
I’m left handed and can barely draw stick people.
However I could always use a camera better, even when very little.
I think the author is herself left-handed, but that’s only an uneducated guess based on the two articles she’s written about left-handedness. :^)
It’s easy to see how right-handedness will be the next big thing to condemn as a form of bigotry.
I throw and shoot with my right.
But I can use a fork with either hand, though I favor my right.
Also, look at the sport of boxing. Conventional right-handed boxers typically have problems fighting lefties. Lefties are used to fighting conventional fighters. Very, very used to it. So much so that THEY don’t like fighting another lefty.
For the lefty, the first time confronting a righty in combat would leave the lefty with the same disadvantage as the righty has.
I know exactly how you feel! If I write on a blackboard or a whiteboard I can write with my right hand since I make the letters larger. I haven’t mastered using my right hand with a pen but if I worked at it I probably could. My main confusion comes if I’m driving somewhere I’ve never been and the GPS says turn left or right. That doesn’t work for me in heavy traffic at times. Sometimes I have to go past the turning point and come back. LOL
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